Renegade
by 0 Jordinio 0
Summary: A young mans journey to reach the very top. He aimed to become the pinnacle of all Pokemon Trainers. A legend. He just hadn't realized, that in his quest to become one, the true Legends of times long past would stir from the vibrations of his ever growing powerful soul, beating the drums that sounded the march. The time was upon them, could humanity weather the storm?
1. Chapter 1

**This prologue here has been in the works for a while now.**

**A complete redo of my first Pokemon story – Path Of A Master.**

**Path Of A Master: From Dusk To Plateau!**

**Prologue**

**Begin!**

* * *

"Are you serious!?" Ash Ketchum demanded hotly. He couldn't believe his ears. This couldn't be happening. Not today, not when it was supposed to be one of the greatest days of his life.

Professor Samuel Oak of Pallet Town, a tall older gentleman with short tidy, greying hair and a strong square jaw merely nodded solemnly, "I'm sorry Ash." He replied, "There are no suitable Pokemon left here at the ranch for you to start your journey with."

Ash couldn't keep the disbelief from his face. His amber eyes wide with the emotion shown clearly to all who would dare to look. His knees felt weak, so much so that they nearly gave way beneath him.

He just couldn't believe it. He'd been awaiting this precise day excitedly for more than five years now. Ever sine he consciously understood what being a Pokemon Trainer meant. And now it was ruined, all because his stupid Voltorb alarm clock somehow broke during the night.

"...How long.." Ash began weakly, raising his eyes to look the older Professor in the eyes. He swallowed heavily, already dreading the answer, "How long would it take for you to get another starter Pokemon ready for me?" He asked.

Oak sighed, "Three months at the very least." The Professor replied, "It would need time after hatching to grow to an acceptable size and then require training so that the Pokemon would be strong enough for a Trainer to rely on in the beginning of their journey."

Ash's fist clenched at the answer. Three months, that was a long time. By then Gary and Leaf would be miles ahead of him. He could just imagine Gary's condescending voice laughing at him for being so far behind.

He withheld the urge to shout at Oak in a rage, albeit barely. It wasn't his fault that he'd had to give up the Pokemon held for him. Today was the day He, Gary and Leaf should have all gotten their Pokemon together. It wasn't Oak's fault that some bigshot from the League began causing trouble and making demands for a starter Pokemon for his own child. If he'd been here earlier, he would have gotten the Charmander instead of that spoiled brat.

The young raven haired trainer-to-be sighed in dismay, his anger deflating. It wasn't like he was even picky about what Pokemon he got. A Pidgey, Caterpie, hell even a Magikarp. He'd played with all kinds of them out in Route 1 as he was growing up – well, until that nasty flock of Spearow migrated there a few months back and began causing trouble.

He perked up suddenly, both a grin coming to his face and an idea coming to mind. "Hey Professor, why don't I just catch my own Pokemon?" Ash asked.

Oak's eyes widened in alarm, "Absolutely not!" He denied him vehemently, "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is!? Even a Rattata could kill you if it was angered enough boy!" He exploded.

Ash scowled at him, "C'mon Professor, it's not like it'd be any more dangerous than whenever I played with the Pokemon out in Route 1." He shot back. While it was true it could be dangerous, and he'd had a few close calls – mainly from angry parental Pokemon when he tried to play with their young – it wouldn't exactly be hard to capture a Pidgey or Caterpie. The young ones didn't have the necessary strength to overpower the capture mechanism of even the basic Pokeball.

Well, unless they were born from extremely powerful parents. Like that one Pidgey he'd been playing with a while back that uprooted a tree with an Uproar attack. That had been awesome.

Professor Oak sighed, "Capturing Pokemon is different Ash." He replied, "While it's possible you could capture the likes of a Pidgey or Starly alone, there is no guarantee that they will willingly follow you and may just turn on you and attack you the moment you release them from the Pokeball."

Ash's scowl deepened as the Professor continued lecturing him, "In fact, many would be more inclined to attack you because of the sheer fact that you didn't defeat them in a battle to earn their respect or obedience."

Taking a deep breath, Ash calmed himself. "Look Professor," He began, "I'm not willing to wait months for a Pokemon because the one that was supposed to be mine was given away." He already had a dozen or so Pokeballs of his own already, and while a Pokedex would be a massive help he'd make due with a Trainer guide book or two.

Ash took one of the empty Pokeballs strapped to his magnetized belt and held it aloft, "I've already said my goodbyes to my Mom, have all the supplies I need packed and refuse to fall behind Gary so if you can't give me a Pokemon I'll catch one on my own." He said. There was a sharp edge to his voice that told he would not be dissuaded.

He'd already received his 10th birthday certificate from the Indigo League declaring him of age to become a Pokemon Trainer. Being gifted a starter Pokemon was a mere formality, he was still a trainer with or without one.

Oak pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed deeply, "Very well." He muttered in defeat, shoulders slumping. "There is one Pokemon I have that may fit the bill, follow me." Turning on his heel, the older man beckoned Ash over his shoulder and left the lab they were in.

Raising an eyebrow in curiosity and squashing the sudden uplifting feeling of excitement in the pit of his stomach, Ash followed Oak out of the lab and through the hallways of the massive building that the old man called home.

They came to a stop at a door almost on the other end of the building from the lab. When Ash followed the Professor in, he couldn't help but stare in wonder as he entered into a large room even bigger than the lab.

And most of all, sitting behind a multitude of playpen gates were young Pokemon, loads of them.

Oak led him to the back of the room, and Ash couldn't help but gaze at the young Pokemon in wonder. There had to be at least fifty of them. Nidoran, Rattata, Oddish, Sandshrew even a little Pichu. They were all so tiny, some barely bigger than even his hand.

Baby pokemon, Ash realized.

But why did Oak bring him here? None of these Pokemon were fit for battling yet.

He got his answer when they came to a stop at the final pen and Oak pointed at the pokemon within. Following the finger, Ash's eyes went wide.

There, standing barely taller than his ankle was a quadruped Pokemon covered in fluffy brown fur. It had long ears that stretched above its head, a bushy tail a neckline covered in scarflike cream fur and a small, round face.

An Eevee!

It was as cute as it was rare. In fact, this was Ash's first time seeing one in person. He'd only ever saw them on T.V or in books.

But this Eevee, even from just a glance Ash could tell it was different then any other Eevee he'd heard of. They were usually a rather kind, playful and docile species of Pokemon.

This Eevee was glaring bloody daggers at him and its lips were pulled back into a snarl. It looked like it would attack at any moment.

Oak sighed, breaking him from his stare of with the Pokemon. "This particular Pokemon is at a suitable level for a beginning Trainer."

Ash raised an eyebrow. This was definitely odd, a well bred Eevee could be worth a small fortune, and while this one was a bit small by the looks of it, it was still an amazingly good looking Pokemon.

Besides the rather frightening snarl tugging at its lips, that is.

Something was fishy about this. "You're giving me an Eevee?"Ash asked, his voice seeped with dubiousness.

"Yes." Oak answered succinctly.

"...Why?" Ash just had to ask. Despite the excitement welling in the pit of his stomach and the urge to just grab it into his arms and hug the living daylights out of it, Ash couldn't help but wonder just why nobody else would have taken it by now.

It was young, and there was no sign of any other Eevee anywhere. And considering Eevee eggs were laid in groups that was confusing. Ash expected there would be a couple of its litter mates about.

He was broken from his thoughts by something nudging his shoulder. He blinked, finding it to be Professor Oak probing him with the closed form of a Pokedex.

Oak sighed again as Ash held out his hand and took the Pokedex, and the five standard shrunken Pokeball's given to trainers when they start their journey. "This Eevee is rather aggressive." Oak stated.

"Uh-huh..." Ash hummed. "And why is that?" He asked.

"As you can no doubt tell, Eevee is rather small and was the runt of its litter." The Professor replied, "In order to stand out amongst it's bigger siblings, it seemed to want to prove it was stronger and thus became very aggressive during practice battles."

Ash nodded his head. That wasn't to far above his head for him to not understand. People did that too, kids who were teased for their height if they were short mostly.

He definitely understood that, Gary's bloody nose a year back was testament to that.

But still, that didn't answer the question as to why it was here and not with its litter mates.

Ash was about to open his mouth to question why, but had no need to as Professor Oak began to speak again. "The problem is that it is too aggressive." He revealed, peaking Ash's interest even further, "That specific batch of Eevee were bred precisely for a rather rich patron of mine who lives in Sinnoh – he is a collector of sorts who has all sorts of rare and _docile_ Pokemon living within a private habitat."

The pieces were beginning to fall in place now, Ash mused. "So then what did your patron want done with this little guy?" Ash asked, crouching down to eye level with the Eevee. It boldly sniffed at him through the small bars separating them before going back to glaring him a moment later when it seemingly found whatever it was looking for.

"Nothing."

A beat.

"Nothing!?" Ash all but shouted, standing up and whirling around to face the Professor. "This little Eevee is probably worth more than a top of the line sports car and he said _nothing_!" The young beginner trainer practically choked on the word.

While he and his mother never had any money problems. They lived a modest lifestyle, his mother worked part-time as a chef at the local restaurant and sometimes as an assistant to Professor Oak since she studied under him in her teenage years.

He'd never had the kinda of money to throw around like Gary. Who he might add started out his journey in a _Convertible_ with a group of _hired_ cheerleaders to top it all off.

Ash knew that if he made it far as a Trainer – which he planned to – he would make quite a bit of money himself. But still, it boggled the mind how wasteful rich people could be with their money.

Oak shook his head, "Nothing at all." He replied, "In fact, he gave Eevee to me to keep. Which is why I've decided if you can get it to accept you as a Trainer I'll let you have it as your first Pokemon."

There was silence for a moment. Excitement roared up from the pit of Ash's stomach, electrifying his body in a way he couldn't quite describe.

It was making him not think straight, or so he'd later claim for the act of stupidity that he performed straight after hearing those words.

Turning on his heel, Ash bent over the pen the Eevee was in and startled it mightily when he grabbed it by the scruff of the neck like he'd seen his mother do to couple of Growlithe pups and lift the little Pokemon straight up, face to face with him.

Or he would have if the Eevee didn't smash his hand away with its tail, hard enough to rattle the bone. Despite how fluffy the tail was, it packed some serious muscle. And then, while Ash was cringing in pain the Eevee snarled, black mist pooling around its small fangs and it sank its teeth deep into his forearm.

Oak watched on with wide eyes, a massive urge to get the rabid Pokemon away from Ash and as well as berate him for such a stupid action. He didn't though, because of the way Ash acted in response to taking the Bite attack.

* * *

The boy grimaced, but didn't cry out in pain.

Ash held the Eevee aloft, holding it up by the teeth where it bit him. It hurt, it hurt like hell. It wasn't just a normal bite either, it was the actual Pokemon attack Bite. And he could feel a chilling sting being pumped through the puncture marks the bite made into his arm.

But he refused to cry out in pain. This wasn't the first time he'd been hurt for being too overzealous, be it Pokemon or human that caused it. Admittedly he had wanted to drag the Eevee into a stare of, make it respect his strength by showing it no fear, despite how easy it would be for the Pokemon to cause him a lot of pain.

This though, this worked out even better.

Ash smirked, his amber eyes glittering wildly with raw determination, "Is that all you've got!?" He demanded, shouting in the small Pokemon's face, "Bite harder you little shit! Show me this strength of yours that you cherish so damn much!" He bellowed.

The fangs tightened around his bone, blood pooled in a slow trickle staining the Eevee's teeth red and dripping onto the floor. Despite the intense pain, the feeling that his bone was cracking under the strength of the Pokemon's attack, Ash grinned.

"That's the way!" He encouraged. Ash shook his arm, gaining the Pokemon's attention and making it meet his eyes, amber on chocolate brown. "You wanna be strong right!? He demanded.

The narrowing of the Eevee's was all Ash needed to see to see he caught its attention.

"Then be my Pokemon!" Ash declared, bringing his injured arm and the Eevee up closer to his face, until they were nose to nose. "I'm aimin' for the very top, the best of the best, so become my Pokemon and I'll make you strong enough to stand at the very top at my side!"

He breathed deeply after that for a few moments. Ash grunted as the fangs in his arm tightened a bit more before thankfully lessoning and disengaging.

The Eevee dropped to the floor at his feet, standing with its chest puffed up in a proud manner and Ash couldn't help but grin as he continued to ignore the woozy feeling that came with losing such an amount of blood.

Clicking his fingers, Ash accepted that as Eevee's consent. Tuning on his heel, the raven haired trainer grinned at Oak who was pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "That's how you win the allegiance of a pokemon Professor." He boasted with a laugh.

Eevee at his feet barked something akin to a laugh aswell and together they laughed the situation away.

Professo Oak though began to massage the bridge of his nose, "Oh Arceus, what monstrous team have I created this time?" He lamented.

The headache that had begun to form became intense and throbbing a moment later when Ash revealed one last declaration, "From now on your new names Fang!" He said, "A wild name for a wild guy like you and to show how separate you are from the crowd of nobodies!"

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon:**

_Fang/Eevee – Male – Quick Attack, Bite, Shadow Ball, Sand Attack._

_Personality: Aggressive and proud. Using the official terms from Tv-Tropes, Fang takes the _**Blood Knight**_ position on the team._

* * *

**There we go. I've been meaning to begin this story for a while now. This is the official release of the re-write of Path Of A Master combined with elements I introduced in Working Sinnoh With Skill.**

**Ash won't be catching alot of Pokemon. About eight in the entirety of his Kanto journey.**

**I'll probably begin the official chapter 1 tomorrow. I'd do it tonight but I'm busy grinding in Runescape, bothersome as hell.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, it really has been a while hasn't it? I'm really sorry about that but life had been kicking my ass for the longest time.**

**Thankully, I've managed to hopefully get the next few months free. And if all pans out right I should be a lot more active in the next few months.**

**Now this story. I wasn't too happy when I came back looking at the devised plot and instead completey redone almost all of it. There might be some minor inconsistensies from the first chapter, but they should be easily ignored if there are any.**

**Anyway, for upadates on my progress and the like check out my blog. I've got it up and running again and even added information pages for a couple of my stories, the rest should be up and completed in the next few days. My twitter if you're interested will probably have more information daily about my progress and probably whatever stories are holding my attention. So if you're interested follow the links on my profile and follow me.**

**That's enough rambling here for me now, so I'll leave off here and let you get to the reading.**

* * *

_A blinding yellow arc of lightning ripped through the air._

_A wide trench was torn through the grassy plains as it rapidly approached its target, a small orange in color bipedal pokemon barely over a foot in height with a long tail tipped by a small ember of flames._

"_Dodge it Charmander!" Ash called out from off to the side, his amber eyes glittering with excitement._

_Lunging to the side, Charmander managed to narrowly evade the attack, rolling as it landed back onto its feet and a toothed grin present on its rounded face. The lightning dispersing mere moments after being dodged._

"_Dragonbreath!" Ash ordered hastily._

_Obeying his commands, Charmander opened its mouth and quickly fired a narrow beam of compressed green and yellow flames straight towards its opponent._

_The attack traversed the clearing they were battling in within moments. Yet it made no difference as the attack missed and went on to reduce a tree behind the opponent to burning splinters._

_Its opponent, a small yellow rodent just a bit taller than Charmander, with two long pointed ears, red circular cheek marks and a lightning-bolt shaped tail merely spun to the side and evaded effortlessly before blasting off too fast for the normal eye to follow, a blinding silvery trail left in its wake._

_Ash barely saw it move, his eyes only catching a blur as the pokemon disappeared and re-appeared._

_Charmander fared better, able to track its opponents movements, if only barely. It was not nearly enough to allow Charmander a chance to dodge, but it did give it enough warning to tense its body and take the head spearing into its stomach with all the strength it could muster._

_The attack was brutal, but Charmander managed to stay upright merely sliding backwards a few feet. Panting, Charmander fell to one knee a heated glare directed at its opponent all the while a large bruise began to discolour its yellow underbelly._

_The opponent stopped, tilting its head in curiosity as it looked at Charmander trying to discern whether or not the small Fire-type pokemon could continue. Ash, never one to allow an opportunity pass to him by latched onto the opponent like a starving beast finding a juicy steak._

"_Power-up Punch!" He declared, punching his own fist forward in emphasis. Indeed Charmander took quite a brutal injury, possibly even some fractured ribs, Ash knew this. But he also knew just what type of personality **his **Charmander had. _

_He was following the path they'd both decided on._

_Charmander shot up like a bullet, uncaring of its injury, both tiny clenched fists exploded with an orange aura and the baby form of Charizard began to rain down a parade of blows upon its opponent._

_With each swing of one of its fists, the strength behind each blow increased. After each swing, gusts of wind were generated growing larger and larger as the rain of blows continued on._

_All for naught._

_With seeming ease and much superior speed, Charmander's opponent ducked, weaved and dodged with no trouble whatsoever._

_Ash's mind ran at a mile a minute. Charmander was much too slow to hit its opponent, even in such close proximity. The only option was to throw it off balance and hit it then._

"_Spin and tail!" Ash quickly decided on, short and to the point._

_Deliberately over extending on its next punch, Charmander allowed the aura of its attack to disperse and used the momentum behind the final blow to carry it through a spin, swinging its tail with all the strength and momentum it could muster straight at its opponents torso._

_Quick as a flash, the opponent had already cleared ten feet behind it in one quick leap. Just as Ash had wanted, before it had even landed Ash had already decided on his next course of action._

"_Flame Burst!" He shouted quickly, nearly tripping over his words in the process to get them out so quickly._

_The attack was just as named. A burst of flame, a medium to even low level Fire-type attack. Flames compressed into a sphere and fired rapidly. What it lacked in power, it more than made up for in speed._

_It took barely more than a second before the sphere of fire was compressed and shot at the opponent. But by then, it was already too late._

_As soon as it had landed, the opponent immediately shot off once again, another silvery sheen of light left in its wake as it rocketed forward and upwards, launching itself into the air as the projectile of flames was fired and dodged above it._

_Spinning while mid-air, the pokemon used it to power its momentum as its tail took on a silverish-gray hue not unlike some types of metal, and smashed its empowered tail straight into Charmander's face before the fire-type could even react to its attack being dodged._

_The power behind the blow was tremendous._

_Charmander ploughed into the ground, but even that didn't stop its momentum. The force behind the attack it took was enough to send it skidding through the ground, leaving a trench almost as deep as its body that stretched on a good twenty feet before slowing to a stop right in front of Ash._

_Ash's eyes widened, rushing he slid across the ground on his knees and rapidly began to check Charmander over. Ever so gently, Ash extracted the pokemon from the trench lifting the small pokemon up and cradling it against his chest._

"_...Char..."_

_Charmander peered up at Ash through two swollen eyes, the area around its eyes where it took that last attack was already discoloured with a smatter of sickly yellow bruised flesh._

_Before Ash could say anything to reassure **his** pokemon, Charmander began to shakily push itself up onto two unsteady legs, attempting to walk its way back towards its opponent whom had taken to standing in the middle of the clearing they were in, watching both human and pokemon._

_Shaking his head with a fond smile, Ash wrapped his arms around Charmander from behind and pulled the small pokemon back against his chest gently. Lowering his head, Ash softly tucked his chin atop Charmander's head, "You done great buddy." He said, a small smile tugging at his lips._

_There was a grunt below him, and Charmander struggled a bit more to leave his arms but Ash held tight. "I mean it." Ash laughed, "There's no way you could've beat Pikachu right now, I've been training him for nearly four years now, and you only hatched out of your egg two months ago." He continued on._

_He felt Charmander's head move a bit, and Ash assumed the small pokemon was now looking up at him. Instead of meeting the Pokemon's eyes though, Ash turned his eyes towards the other occupant of the clearing. "Thanks for your help today Pikachu, feel free to head on home for mom to put out your lunch." He said._

"_Pi!" One small yellow paw was waved in agreement before their opponent turned its back on them and vacated the clearing._

_Ash watched his first pokemon leave before turning his attention to the pokemon in his eyes, whom he found was still staring up at him quizzically even through swollen eyes. "I didn't expect you to win against Pikachu." Ash stated, "This battle was just your very first and a way for us to find out what we need to work on."_

"_...Char?" The small orange pokemon cooed quietly up at him._

_Ash smirked, guessing exactly what Charmander was asking. "Well, I can safely say you've got a lot more power and are a lot stronger than Pikachu when he first started out." The young trainer to be relented._

_Ash laughed as he felt the pokemon puff out its chest in pride within his arms. "Still, you're a heck of a lot slower than Pikachu was, even when I first started to train him." He continued._

_He had to hold himself back from a laughing fit when there was a growl below him and Charmander deflated once again. "No need to worry buddy." Ash stated, causing the young pokemon to perk up again and look him in the eyes, green meeting amber. "I had a feeling this would be the case before I even suggested this in the first place, so I 'borrowed' one of Professor Oaks Pokedex' last night and spent hours researching all about the capabilities of your species." He said with a chuckle._

_Charmander's stare was intense, practically demanding Ash tell the little pokemon what he found out. "You let me worry about all the theory buddy, I've already got a plan brewing for overcoming your speed disadvantage." Ash said._

_Then, like flicking a switch a large grin stretched across Ash's tan cheeks. Before Charmander could do anything else, Ash lifted the small fire-type up level with his face. "Now, we haven't got around to it yet but since you're obviously going to be the strongest Charizard in the world one day, I figured you'd need a nickname to distance yourself from normal Charizard." He stated._

_It took a few moments for the words to reach and be processed by Charmander's mind, but then the small pokemon nodded a small toothy grin adorning is face once again._

_Ash smirked right back, "Okay then, since you're in agreement I was thinking about Ignis..."_

* * *

It wasn't that Ash was disappointed that he had an Eevee. It was more that when the emotional roller-coaster that overwhelmed him when he was within oak's lab died away, he was left with a crushing sense of emotion that he could barely make heads or tails of.

For one, he'd lost Ignis. He'd picked out Ignis the very first day it had hatched, he had been there when the charmander took its first steps in the world and he'd been the very first one to feed it.

Ash had always known he wanted a Charizard, it was just those moments that hammered home for him that Ignis was the Charizard he one day wanted, even if it wasn't one yet. With the good old professor's agreement, Ash had taken up Ignis' training himself and bonded with the little fire-type over the course of the scant few months they'd been together.

He'd boasted all of his dreams to that little charmander, confided in it what little doubts he had in himself. And in one morning where his alarm clock broke, he lost it all.

Months of training. A close friend, no close friend wasn't enough to describe the bond he shared with Ignis. Without even knowing it, Ash had come to consider the the baby pokemon family.

Whoever this Damian kid was, he better hope that Ash never met him face to face. Because if so, Ash wasn't quite sure what he would do. But he did know it wouldn't be pretty.

Ash cast an eye at the fluffy brown pokemon walking by his side, teeth bared and a snarl on its face. It was pretty strong already, not in Ignis' league mind you, but strong enough that he shouldn't have much problems in the beginning of his journey.

The problem lay in the fact that Fang was a vicious little thing. He'd already had to stop him from shooting a small school of Pidgey out of the sky with a barrage of Shadow Ball attacks. The miasmal ghost-type energy wouldn't harm them due to the Pidgey being part normal-type.

That immunity though wouldn't do a thing when the attack detonated though, releasing the power contained within the miasmic ghost energy shell.

Maybe if it was a Pidgeotto or something of that level he would have let Fang continue. A Pidgeotto would be useful, but Ash didn't really want a bunch of dead, baby Pidgey on his conscience.

Still, this left him with some problems he mused. The evolutions of the Eevee species were useful, but the biggest problems Ash had were picking one and planning. With Ignis, he'd began planning months ago, researched into the Gym Leaders of the Kanto Region, built strategies to take on the like of Brock, the Sensational Sisters and Surge. But now, with no Ignis and a barely trained Eevee he'd have to start from near enough the ground up in regards to his second pokemon.

Jolteon, Flareon Vaporeon, Espeon, Umbreon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Sylveon. Eight choices, and all pokemon Ash had barely bothered ever researching because of how unlikely it was for him to run into any in the wild.

Shaking his head as he came to a stop to the gate of his garden, Ash rid himself of thoughts on his current problems. "C'mon." Ash said, opening the gate and walking inside, Fang following in behind him.

His home was a moderate sized, upstairs, three bedroom house. The building was white from the base up, ending in a red tiled roof. A veranda with an arched ceiling led to the front door and the garden around the house was lush with green grass, a variety of different coloured flowers and freshly grown vegetables that his mother spent her free time tending to.

He barely made it two feet into the garden before he noticed something out of place. Fang immediately began to snarl threateningly at the formerly curled up ball of yellow fur that was now beginning to stand on all fours, eyeing the pokemon at Ash's side.

"Pi?" Pikachu tilted his little head to the side in confusion, before meeting Ash's eyes, staring at him quizzically with his deep black eyes.

Ash scratched the back of his head, suddenly feeling quite bashful. Turning his head to the side, so Pikachu couldn't see the flush of embarrassment riding up his neck, he answered. "Well...it turns out that since my alarm clock broke somehow during the night, I was too late to get Ignis before Oak was forced to give him to another beginning trainer."

He turned back to Pikachu and found himself caught in a silent staring contest without his consent. Pikachu had near enough grown up right beside him, despite Ash raising him when he was a baby. They'd grown into near enough brothers in all but species and blood rather than parent and child. He was closer to Pikachu than he was with Gary, Leaf or Serena.

So it wasn't really a surprise that Ash understood what Pikachu wanted when the little electric-types cheeks sparked with power and his eyes suddenly narrowed in Fang's direction, still snarling threateningly yet had been dismissed readily by Pikachu in favour of a silent conversation.

Still, it wasn't just Pikachu. Ash had always been able to more or less understand what a pokemon meant, even if he couldn't speak their language. It was just a feeling he got whenever interacting with pokemon.

"You want to test him?" Ash asked, his amber eyes narrowing as well and the flush retreating from his features. He crossed his arms, unsure. It was true a battle like this would allow him to see just how strong Fang was, seeing as he only knew the attacks he could perform. On the other hand, strength near enough meant everything to Fang by this point, and he hadn't had the luxury of training alongside Pikachu like Ignis had before their first battle.

He looked down at his starter pokemon. "Hey Fang." He said, snapping his pokemon from his snarling and causing him to turn and glare at him in annoyance for interrupting him, "How'd you feel about a small battle with Pikachu here? Just so I can get an idea of how strong you are?" He questioned.

Barely a second went by before he was answered with an excited yip, Fang practically vibrating in the spot all of a sudden.

Rolling his eyes, Ash turned to Pikachu again. "Take it to that clearing over there." He pointed to a field of grass just a few metres from the path that led up to his house, "I don't want on mom's shit list again for tearing up her garden." He said.

Pikachu nodded, and then all of a sudden the little yellow pokemon was gone. Ash barely able to follow the blur that vaulted over the fence around his house, Ash had to hold back a whistle, he hadn't even seen the sheen of energy a Quick Attack usually left behind, impressive. Fang on the other hand, had wide eyes and was looking around in confusion.

"Fang." Ash said, drawing the Pokemon's eye, "Over there, show me what you got!" He practically commanded, pointing towards the field that now had a small yellow bur standing in the middle of it.

Fang snarled, apparently once again angry and took of in his own blur of speed with Quick Attack. It was much slower than Pikachu though Ash noted. While it only took a handful of seconds for Fang to crash into Pikachu's spot, Ash could still follow the blur Eevee was with his eyes and Pikachu had arrived in that spot before Ash could even blink fully.

Pikachu easily weaved to the side, dodging the Quick Attack enhanced body blow. Fang didn't eve have time to turn his head to the side before Pikachu, like lightning whipped out his tail and smashed it straight into Fangs side.

The small normal-type was sent bouncing across the grassy field for a good ten feet before managing to dig his paws into ground and kid to a stop, a small trench left in his feet's wake. To think, that was just a playful smack with Pikachu's tail, not even empowered by Iron Tail.

Ash quirked an eyebrow though when he noticed that, upon skidding to a stop Fang had already charged up a Shadow Ball more than half the size of his body. Impressive speed at gathering power, he'd give Fang that.

Ash grimaced as the Shadow Ball was fired though. It packed quite a bit of power for a Pokemon so young, but it was dreadfully slow.

In fact, Fang had taken off blitzing to the side of the Shadow Ball with Quick attack on the hopes of flanking Pikachu. But by the time Fang had made it a few feet to the side, Pikachu was already there in front of him, pulling his own version of Fang's first attempt at attacking himself and smashed a Quick Attack enhanced body blow straight into Fangs front.

Fang was sent soaring through the air, flying a good twenty feet but just as Ash was beginning to fear he'd crash painfully into one of the trees at the end of the field, Fang managed to reorient himself as he came down, padded feet absorbing the force of the impact and once again skidding a long trench in the grassy field.

One thing Ash did know about the Eevee line was that they all had similar feet to the Buneary/Lopunny line and it gave them pretty incredibly jumping power, and feet that could handle the punishment of falling from those heights.

"Tenacious, I'll give him that." Ash chuckled as Fang once again went on the offensive.

Launching forward, another Quick Attack enhancing his speed. Fang began to launch a rapid barrage of small Shadow Ball attacks, they were barely a tenth of the size of the other one he fired before Ash noted, but was making up for that by firing a good two or three per second.

Spinning in his own spot, Pikachu launched an arc of electricity straight up above his spinning form that splintered as it reached the apex of its launch and began to rain down in dozens of smaller arcs of electricity, shielding Pikachu from the Shadow Ball barrage.

Fang refused to back down though and continued his speeding charge with Quick Attack, dark miasmic energy beginning to leak from his mouth as he prepared a Bite attack in advance as well.

Ash had to admit, Fang was actually pretty good at battling and he was a gutsy little thing to. This little charge he was performing now, would on a normal opponent make him take some damage blitzing through the make shift electrical shields, but would leave the opponent caught flat footed and open to a powerful counter attack.

Too naïve though. This was Pikachu's Counter Shield, a technique he and Pikachu had spent the better part of a year creating and trained with for months on end to master.

As long as Pikachu powered enough electricity into it, the Counter Shield could be left to operate alone, giving the image that Pikachu was still inside. It was both a defense and feint in one. Something Ash was immensely proud of.

His point was proven not even a moment later as Pikachu came diving through the air above the Counter Shield, smashing his tail straight atop Fang's head.

Ash shook his head as Fang was once again launched skidding across the field. He'd seen enough here, Pikachu was only playing. Usually, that manoeuvre would involve Pikachu using the electrical charge of the Counter Shield to launch himself into the air, spin while mid-air as he came down to add momentum and power to an Iron Tail attack that would crush the opponent between Pikachu's tail and the ground.

In theory at least, besides Ignis, Pikachu only ever got to battle weak Pokemon around Pallet Town. Not like any of the strong ones would ever get close, not with that monster of a Dragonite Professor Oak had guarding the skies.

And there was no way in hell Ash would let Pikachu battle any of Professor Oak's monsters. Most dragon-type Pokemon grew in height on level with their power. The Dragonite species did not have a specific lifespan, but they were a species that also grew in power as they aged as well.

The average Dragonite according to the Pokedex barely reached over seven feet in height, but Oaks? That monster was ridiculous in that it was over sixteen feet tall!

No way in hell.

Shaking his head, Ash rid himself of such thoughts just in time to catch Pikachu once again bat Fang across the field with his tail.

"This could take a while." He mused.

Coming to the decision that he wasn't needed here for the most part, Ash turned around and entered his house. He had been lying to Professor Oak when he'd told him he'd already said his goodbyes to his mother, in fact he didn't even have his travelling gear on him. Why the old professor didn't just call him out on it Ash would never know.

And even then, the professor should have known he'd never leave without Pikachu. He wanted to challenge the strongest eight gyms in the Kanto Region, without Pikachu he had no chance even against the weakest of Gym Leaders without training for months.

* * *

_The harsh pitter-patter of the rain crashing against the living room windows almost drowned out the sound of the television, but Ash did his best the ignore it._

_The small six year old lay across the couch, his eyes glued to the screen as a Gengar and Steelix clashed on screen._

_It was the battle of the year, Bruno was taking on Agatha in an attempt to move up the Elite Four ranks and Ash couldn't have tore his eyes from the breathtaking battle if he tried. Bruno was down to his last pokemon, where as Agatha still had three left._

_The massive Steelix roared, smashing its massive tail empowered by Iron tail straight down on the battlefield. Ash couldn't withhold his gasp of awe as literally the landscape of the battlefield was split in two, cratering two sides outwards and leaving Gengar trapped from both sides, unable to phase through the concrete due to Bruno's previous pokemon, a Machamp using the foresight attack to trap in in physical form._

_The Gengar didn't hesitate as it launched a massive sphere, bigger than its body made up entirely of turquoise energy, one after another in rapid succession. Each Focus Blast detonated atop Steelix' frame with enough power rip the clouds from the sky, yet they appeared to be useless as Steelix' massive body erupted with golden energy and it struck as quick as an Arbok , traversing the distance between it and its opponent within a mere second and ploughing straight into the Gengar with its Double Edge attack._

_The Gengar was sent soaring back hundreds of feet, before sliding to a stop at the edge of the psychic barrier that kept the battle from harming the crowd. It didn't get back up._

_With a beam of red light, Agatha returned her Gengar Her wrinkled face was impassive as it appeared on screen, and without a seconds hesitation she had already sent out her next pokemon._

_It was a pokemon Ash had never seen in his life before, and he took classes with Gary from Professor Oak. A gargantuan pokemon that looked almost like an armoured man made up entirely of solid blue rock. It was only the announcer declaring its species name as Golurk that he even learned it before the battle continued on._

_And what a pokemon Golurk was. From his limited studies, Ash ad always thought ghost pokemon were really weak physically and had to rely on their supernatural powers. But not Golurk When Steelix lashed out like lightning with an Iron Tail attack once again, Golurk literally caught the massive pokemon by the tail before using its grip to pick Steelix up and launch it through the air with contemptuous ease._

"_Awesome!" Ash gushed, his amber eyes wide with wonder._

_Steelix roared as it shot up to its full height, towering so high it nearly reached the roof of the stadium. Its mouth opened in a silent snarl, greenish yellow flames licking at its throat as it unleashed its Dragonbreath attack. And what an attack it was, it looked like an entire wave of flames rising from an ocean bore down upon Golurk_

_Blue light flared, and the massive wave of flames were stopped in their tracks. With a heave of its mighty arms, the wave of flames was compacted into a massive sphere and Golurk sent them soaring high into the sky, out of the opened roof and continued upwards where it exploded and dyed the sky in light of green and yellow._

_With one step forward, Golurk punched one fist towards Steelix and before Ash could blink, a massive shadowy fist bigger than Ash's house was sent roaring towards its opponent._

"_Amazing!" Ash breathed in out in awe when Steelix lashed out with the same ease the Golurk displayed before and crushed the massive fist beneath its tail, forcing it to dispel in black shadowy flakes as it was smashed against the ground._

_Both pokemon were still for more than a minute next. Ash was confused why they weren't battling when the camera switched views and zoomed in on Bruno who appeared to be talking to Agatha._

"_-Seems I have been taking you to lightly thus far honoured elder, and for that I apologize." Bruno was saying. Lightly? Ash had never seen pokemon this strong battling before, not even the Indigo Plateau finals could come close to this. "Now, I shall attack with all of my might and defeat you here and now with Steelix at his most powerful."_

_The camera cut to Agatha next, the old woman had a smile playing upon her face, it was a smile that made Ash think she knew something he and the rest of the crowd watching didn't."I see, so you have achieved **that**_ _state, hmm?" She mused, a crinkle of joy seemed to emanate from her eyes Ash thought. "I had assumed so, otherwise it would be much to soon for you have to bridged the gap between us."_

_The camera once again swivelled to Bruno who had a small smile of is own atop his roguish face, "Indeed! Now allow me to show you the power of a pokemon even Lance cannot compete with!" Bruno's voice boomed. The man with one quick swipe of his hand tore the white sleeve from the karate gi he was wearing, revealing his muscular tanned arm to the world._

_And the band with a gem shining brightly hooked tightly around his arm._

_Bruno lifted his arm, and all around him powerful silvery grey energy erupted into the air. "Unleash your primal fighting spirit and surpass all who stand before your might!" Bruno declared loudly, "Steelix, Mega Evolve!"_

_Mega Evolve!? Ash had never heard of anything like that in his admittedly short life at all, he thought the Steelix species was already fully evolved!_

_Steelix on the screen roared, its body shining with blinding white light that shielded it from view. Ash had by now sat up and was leaning towards the television eagerly, almost drooling at the sight before him._

_And then the entire house went dark. Lights going dark and television screen cutting off._

_All was silent for a moment. _

_And then Ash erupted into a furious howl of. "DAAAMMMNNNIIITTT!"_

_Practically leaping from his seat on the couch, Ash sprinted towards and through the kitchen to the back door. Swinging it open, not caring about the storm pouring down from above him or his bare feet he stomped outside and made his way towards the fuse box, uncaring of his form suddenly being soaked to the bone within seconds._

_With a growl of pure annoyance, Ash grabbed the door to the fuse box and swung it open a snarl on his lips._

_Then he stopped cold._

_Huddled within the fuse box, shivering from the cold and small pink cheeks sparking weakly with electricity as it tried to nurse on the wiring within and draw out more electricity was a tiny, little Pichu._

_All of his anger and annoyance evaporated instantly at the sight of the pitiful little pokemon. It was barely any bigger than his hand, his own tiny six year old hand and its fur was completed drenched wet._

_For a moment, both he and the Pichu just stared at each other._

_Ash in utter bemusement that he found a wild pokemon in his fuse box and the Pichu in utter terror as it beheld the six year old that was more than twenty times its size._

_Pushing itself back, the Pichu tried to hide its tiny form behind the wires and away from Ash's attention._

_It was its well displayed fear of Ash that finally snapped him into action. Kneeling down, uncaring of the puddles his knees sunk into, Ash cupped his hands out in front of the Pichu slowly and gently, "Hey little guy, no need to be scared I'm not gonna hurt you."_

_The Pichu cocked its head gently to the side, an undeniably cute motion that made Ash just want to pick it up and hug it. But beating his desire back he smiled softly and again gently spoke, "No need to be afraid little buddy, why don't you come with me and we can get out of this rain and get you something to eat." He said, sliding his cupped hands over towards the Pichu a little bit more._

_It flinched back from the motion, but didn't attempt to bolt or anything thankfully. It looked much smaller than the other Pichu, Ash had seen up at the Oak Ranch. So it made Ash believe the little electric type was only born very recently and got separated from its family, its parents possibly even captured and it hatched from its egg all alone._

_It was a miracle in of itself that Pichu had survived this long, especially since it had been storming around the Pallet Town and Route 1 areas for the past week._

_He held his position for a good minute, but just as he was thinking he'd need to be a little rough with Pichu to get it inside out of the rain, the tiny electric type took a small hesitant step away from the wires and crouching on all fours it began to sniff Ash's hand cautiously._

_After a few moments of sniffing, the small pokemon stepped onto Ash's hands with its body shivering mightily from the biting cold._

_As the Pichu stepped away from the wires fully, its small pink cheeks stopped sparking and from the corner of his eye Ash saw the kitchen lights through the window flicker and come to life. _

_At least one problem was taken care of he mused to himself silently._

_Cupping his hands around Pichu now, Ash gently and slowly rose to a standing position so he didn't startle the little pokemon._

_He lifted the pokemon up to eye level as he made his way inside, kicking the door shut behind him. "Now, let's see about getting you warmed up and fed little guy." He said to the pokemon._

_He made his way through to the living room, absent mindedly nudging he radiator switch on with his foot as he passed and was silently thankful he'd turned the electric fireplace on earlier when his mom left for Professor Oaks place. The house was quite warm thanks to that decision._

_Crouching down as he walked over to the fireplace, Ash placed Pichu down right next to it where the heat was most abundant. "You wait here buddy, I'm just gonna grab a towel so we can get you all dried up and then we can get you a bite to eat, kay?"_

"_Peechu!" The small pokemon chirped, staring up at him._

_Ash couldn't help but stare at the pokemon in awe for a moment. It was just so damn cute, and technically as it was Pichu had agreed to come with him._

_Could that possibly mean Pichu might be his pokemon now?_

_A grin tugged at his lips as he left the living room in search of a towel. This could possibly be the greatest day of his life so far. He could just imagine himself now, standing on the stage he saw Bruno and Agatha standing upon not to long ago, A Raichu standing in front of him cheeks sparking with power as it glared down the massive form of a dragonite._

_Ash shook his head, remembering something Professor Oak told him not long ago when he told the man about his dream to travel the world and become the greatest Pokemon Master ever. "It does not do to dwell upon dreams young Ash, you should instead work with all your might and believe in yourself and one day you'll grasp that dream for sure instead of just imagining what it would be like."_

_He remembered asking the old man why he thought Ash could do it, and even now months later it still confused him._

_The old man had turned to him, a fond smile upon his face. "You remind me of a boy I met long ago, back when I was still on my journey who saved my life and changed it in ways you simply cannot imagine, and like him you have that shining potential to be great." He had replied._

_Still, it didn't make it any less fun to dream. _

"_Dreams can wait till later." He mused, opening the cupboard in the hall and extracting one of the towels stored in there. He just wished the old professor would tell him who that guy was._

* * *

"So Ignis was taken because you were late?" Delia Ketchum asked her son, a frown marring her beautiful youthful face. She was a tall woman with long auburn brown hair tied in a ponytail, pale skin and amber eyes much like Ash's, except they weren't quite as vibrant as his own.

"Yeah, it was a real downer." Ash sighed, thoughts of Ignis rushing through his head again before he shook them off, no point dwelling just like Professor Oak had told him all those years ago, mind you in a different context. "At least I got Fang though, right?" He perked up slightly.

"I'm sorry honey, if I hadn't been off helping Daisy with planting her new gracidea flowers I'd have been able to wake you up." His mother told him, a melancholy smile tugging at her lips and a guilty expression taking over her face.

Ash wouldn't have that though. It was his own stupid fault that he crushed his Voltorb alarm clock while sleeping. "It's fine Mom." He replied, "I mean I'm totally bummed it happened, but I can't change the past and at least I didn't come out of it empty handed." The young trainer continued.

Shaking his head, Ash hurriedly changed the subject. "Anyway, is my bag fully packed?" He questioned. He'd packed most of what he needed last night, but asked his mother to pack the supplies that came from the Pokemon League Society in the morning while he went for Ig- first pokemon.

"Yep!" His mother happily chirped. She leaned to the side of the counter she was leaning on while talking to him and lifted up a large green backpack, needing both hands to lift its weight and sat it on the counter. "The League Certificate, I've taken the liberty of keeping to put in a frame but it confirmed that your starter trainer fees have all been wired to your bank account." Delia told him.

Ash smirked. "Great, that means I can leave whenever." He commented, looking down at the silver belt that held his black cargo pants up. Atop the belt on one side there was five normal empty Pokeballs, shrank to their smallest size and on the other side were two completely different Pokeballs from the others.

These Pokeballs were for both Pikachu and Fang. Pitch black in design trimmed with red and gold circular designs at the top and bottom. In the middle, there was a thick white line trimmed with red that led around and to the front opening up into a golden circular button that released the pokemon inside.

Luxury balls. The most expensive of all Pokeballs, and no way Ash could have afforded one at this point in his journey. For one reason, just one of them would probably cost him near all of his starter money and for the second reason only someone who has competed in a Pokemon League competition or is on the same level or higher than a Gym Leader in rank could purchase them.

Pikachu's had been a gift from Professor Oak for his 7th birthday. Fang's on the other hand was the Pokéball Oak originally gave it after hatching due to his sponsor wanting nothing but the best for his cute litter of Eevee, or something like that. To be honest, Ash was barely listening at that point.

Crazy rich people.

Anyway. Upon becoming a new trainer, a care package was sent along with the graduation to trainer status certificate. It contained a guide book on berry blending, a berry case, a gym badge case, a contest ribbon case, one bag of basic pokemon feed, five super potions, five full heals and 10,000 Poke dollars transferred into the bank account that was mandatory for all league approved trainers which their Pokedex would then be keyed into to serve both as a bank card and I.D.

Hooking one arm through the straps, Ash heaved the backpack up onto his back and very nearly tripped and landed on his face, unprepared for the sudden very heavy weight.

Steadying himself and sliding his other arm through, Ash regained his balance and turned to his mother with a grin that faltered somewhat when he saw her suddenly teary eyes, "...I guess I should be going then." He said, somewhat lamely.

"Oh my big boy is all grown up!" Delia shouted with a sob, throwing herself forward and hugging Ash right over the counter.

Ash struggled in her vice grip to no avail, damn she could give a Kingler a run for its pincers. "Mom! Stop that! It's embarrassing!" He managed to shout, though his voice was muffled sightly due to her pink cardigan being pressed so tight against his face.

Finally she relented and Ash managed to break free with a strangled breath. He met her eyes again, noting they were still teary. "Oh Ashy I'm so proud of you." She said.

It was hard not to smile in pride. Then she ruined it.

"I bet your father would be just as proud, He-" She declared, then went silent suddenly. Her eyes widening at what she just said.

Ash scowled. His father? Fuck that bastard.

He didn't even deserve that title in the first place. He could still remember those cold, impassive eyes searching him for something and finding him lacking. It almost physically hurt remember Pikachu fighting against his father's Rhyhorn the day it evolved and being crushed like a bug.

His father had always been a busy man, so he rarely ever visited and was near enough always cold as ice. But he'd never forget the day his father judged his worth and found him wanting.

"_You've had this pokemon for months, and this is all it could do! Pathetic, I expected much more from my child!"_

Fuck that old bastard. For all Ash cared he could rot in his gym until Ash was ready to head there and crush him just like he'd crushed Ash three years ago. Then once he got the old man's badge, he could go hang for all he cared.

Shaking his head, Ash spared his mother one last peck on the cheek and shaky smile. "Well, I'll call you when I get to Viridian City Mom." He said.

"I'll be waiting eagerly sweetie." She replied, thankfully putting her mention of _him_ out of her mind, "I hope you catch a good pokemon to show me when you get there." Delia finished.

Ash smirked and tossed her a wave, making his way out. "Don't worry Mom, I'll catch a pokemon that will completely blow your mind." Was his parting comment as he stepped out of the front door, onto the porch and closing the door behind him.

Then, he stopped in his tracks and stared stupidly at the scene before him.

In the middle of the garden were both of his pokemon. Pikachu was as pristine as ever, lounging lazily and happily laughing at just what he was lounging on.

Fang lay in a heap beneath him, pinned to the ground completely by Pikachu's surprisingly powerful tail, barely able to move an inch and snarling for all he was worth, his once shining brown coat of fur was matted with mud and a little bit of blood.

Ash very nearly palmed his face. "I can just tell this is going to be a weird start." He groaned.

* * *

As Ash started his journey, Professor Oak was lounging in his lab on a large, very soft orange couch. The old professor stared down at an open notepad in his lap. "It feels like it happened only yesterday." Oak sighed, fondly staring at the image the pad was open to. It had faded with time, but the drawing was still clear.

A young man stood grinning in the picture, one of his hands up with two fingers displaying the sign for victory. On each shoulder, he had a pokemon. On one shoulder there was a Pikachu happily rubbing its cheek against his and on the other a small pixie like pokemon that seemed to be waving its arms and smiling wildly, Celebi. Curled up at the boys feet, snoozing peacefully was a majestic Umbreon.

"Good luck Ash." Oak said to himself softly, staring at the image intently, "You're going to need it."

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon**

_Pikachu – Male – Static – Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Light Screen._

_Personality/Role: Pikachu has a personality very similar to Ash's own, having taken his trainer as a role model when he was a young impressionable Pichu. As mentioned, I will be using roles introduced by TV tropes and thus Pikachu will be **The Hero** of the team and as of this chapter is by far the strongest pokemon Ash has under his ownership._

_Fang – Male – Adaptability – Quick Attack, Shadow Ball, Bite, Sand Attack._

_Personality/Role: Aggressive and Proud to a fault, Fang is stubborn to the point of idiocy in pursuing his goal of gaining strength and becoming the strongest. And along the way, hoping for some good fights to partake in. Fang will will take up the mantle of the **Blood Knight** on the team._

* * *

**And I'm done. Was hoping to get this done last night, but as I mentioned on my blog my dog ran away yesterday and I spent all day looking for him. Thankfully, I found him but I was left exhausted and went to bed straight after.**

**The chapter feels a little clunky to me. But I'm just chalking that up to not having wrote anything in a while. Hopefully that irons itself out as I get more and more into fan fiction and writing again.**

**Anyway, if you missed the mention above. Check out my blog for information pages on my stories and my Twitter for updates on progress and in general good stories that hold my attention. Both links are on my profile, although the blog one is broken so you'll have to copy and paste it, not to mention deleting the spaces.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I have no excuse guys. This should have been out long, long...many long's ago. I have nothing really to say here, just that I'm sorry it took so long. Like I said, I have no excuse. Well, other than the tried and true fact that life got in the way and way led my muse**

**I'll leave this off here since I can't think of anything to say, and let you guys get on with the reading. Hope you enjoy.**

**Edit: Sorry about the re-post, again. With the uploading of my newest Pokemon Story, the names are similar enough to confuse them both. And let's face it - Path to Champion Master: From Dusk to Plateau is just a mouthful and a half. Thus, I changed the title to 'Chosen'. That, and for some reason, Email alerts aren't going out when I update according to my friends, and I'm not getting them either, not had an update notification at all today either for any story...I wonder if there is a problem with the website.**

* * *

"Jolteon's out,"

The Eevee at Ash's side tilted his head up in question.

Walking down the side of the Pallet river that led nearly all the way to Viridian, he looked down at the brown furred pokemon walking at his side, "Well, we have Pikachu don't we? So we don't need another electric-type on the team." he explained.

He was just glad that ever since Pikachu got his luxury ball, he'd had no problems with staying inside it. As it was, he only had to deal with Fang beside him while he worked out a plan of action with the little guy.

"For that same reason, Flareon is out as well I guess," he continued, "Ignis is a fire type, and I'll be getting him back...somehow." He had a name, and a picture to put that name to. Damien Rodriego. He'd get his original intended starter back...somehow.

He cast another look at the Eevee by his side, "From what I saw of your battle with Pikachu, you're the type that likes to get up close and personal with your opponents, so the physically strongest form you can evolve into is our best bet."

Fang nodded his head in agreement, "Vee!"

With his pokedex already in hand, Ash brought up all the information on Eevee and its evolutions. Looking over their natural capabilities. He was going over them all while he was at it, may as well get the standard information on the evolutionary line that he was lacking.

Jolteon were renowned for their speed and high voltage output, but their speed mainly came from their light build, and naturally they were rather frail. The same could be said for Espeon, it was a species that was geared towards Spa – Special Attack Power – with a secondary high output in speed, but like Jolteon was rather frail. Sylveon, was rather average across the board except when it came to using special attacks like Disarming Voice and Moonblast. Glaceon and Leafeon were both rather bulky with naturally high attack and special attack capabilities, but were lacking in endurance. Vaporeon were known for their endurance, out of every known Pokemon species in the world, Vaporeon was rank #12 in natural endurance, only beaten out by the likes of Snorlax, Slaking, Lapras and such.

And finally there was Umbreon. The most physically powerful species of the Eevee Line. Moderately fast, with the ability to use Psychic type attacks as a Dark type, Umbreon already had a lot going for it. But, out of its evolution line, it was the Pokemon with the most dense musculature, mostly geared towards tanking attacks. But, with some special training, that dense musculature could also be geared towards speed, and physical strength.

Well, regardless of the species natural abilities. They could easily be trained for different roles, it just depended on how their were trained. It wasn't like a Jolteon couldn't be trained to take attacks at high power and shake them off. The natural ability of a species were more of a guideline than anything else for a trainer.

Atleast, to Ash.

Going into the files on Umbreon, a grin almost instantly appeared on Ash's face when he got a look towards attacks Umbreon had been recorded performing listed in a little database. Dark Pulse, Psychic, Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Dream Eater….freaking Zap Cannon!

Oh yes, Umbreon besides being a physical marvel had access to a massive possible move pool. This was definitely the best option for Fang no doubt, especially since it was a dark-type, that typing would be more suited for Fang with his aggressive tendencies.

Turning the pokedex around, he lowered it down slightly and showed it to Fang, "I think Umbreon's our best bet, don't you think so?" he questioned.

Fang turned to look at the picture on the screen on the pokedex, but just as the little normal type did, the loud sound of splashing water drew both trainer and pokemon's attention. As one, they looked towards the source, and found, to Ash's surprise, a Magikarp leaping through the air above the river.

It was a pretty large jump too, not something he'd expect out of a Magikarp to be honest. "That must be bounce!" he realized. A moment later, the Magikarp angled itself downwards and thrust down with a tackle attack, disappearing beneath the water's surface.

"Huh," Ash mused with a chuckle, "Well, that was interesting.." he trailed off slightly. Odd, and random..but interesting nonetheless.

He was about to turn his attention back to the Eevee at his side, when another loud splashing sound rang out through the area. His attention was drawn back to the river, just in time to see the Magikarp ascend into the air, then descend.

And repeat.

For more than a minute he and Fang just stood idly by watching as the Magikarp bounced high up into the air, then threw itself back down into the river with a tackle attack. "Is it training?" Ash wondered.

Fang at his side gave a nod, "Vee!" he replied in an affirmative.

Lifting his pokedex back up, he pointed it towards the Magikarp and hit the scan function, "_Magikarp, the Fish Pokémon. Because all Magikarp seem to do is __splash__around, some consider them weak, but they're actually a hardy Pokémon that can survive in water no matter how dirty it is. __Gender: Male, Height 3'06" - __Ability: Rattled - __ Attacks Known: Splash, Tackle, Bounce."_ the pokedex relayed to him.

Ash whistled lightly, "According to the pokedex, this guys a good seven inches bigger than the average Magikarp." He watched the Magikarp ascend into the air, and then disappear into the river one more time before coming to a decision. He turned to the Eevee at his side, "I've decided, I wanna catch it!" he told his pokemon.

Fang gave him an incredulous look, "Vee!?"

Ash raised an eyebrow, "What's with that look?" he questioned, "Sure, bigger or not he's not really all that impressive at the moment, but just think of what he'll be like as a Gyarados."

To show how impressed he was at that thought, Fang yawned. Ash almost felt his eye twitch, "You're a little smart ass aren't you?" he guessed. Quite a different take from when he wanted to battle, but not entirely surprising. Arrogant too, just basically writing off Magikarp like that.

Magikarp and Gyarados just happened to be a species line he'd looked into quite a bit. Even a Magikarp could be strong, they weren't quite as helpless a species until they evolved as most people would believe.

"Get ready," Ash ordered.

Fang sighed rolling his cute little eyes, but did as ordered and crouched slightly into a ready stance. At that moment, Magikarp burst from the river again, launching into the air. "Hey!" Ash shouted towards the airborne water type, "Magikarp!"

Mid-air, the red fish turned to look at him, "Karp?" it wondered aloud. Turning in the air, it thrust itself down into another tackle. A moment or two after it dropped below the water the water type surfaced and swam its way over to the edge of the river, stopping just at the ledge below Ash and Eevee, "Karp?"

Ash crouched down , reaching out with a hand to pat the Magikarp atop its yellow crest, "You're a determined little guy huh?" he mused aloud.

Magikarp nodded, "Karp!"

With his other hand, he reached down to his belt and lifted one of the pokeballs from his belt, "From what I can see, you're training to get stronger, right?" he asked, gaining another nod in reply. He held the pokeball up to the water type's face, "How about you come along with me? With my training, you'll get really strong!"

Magikarp eyed the red and white sphere dubiously for a good few moments. Then, like a light switch was flipped, a happy smile appeared on the water types face, its yellow whiskers wiggling with a jubilant glee. With one of its dancing whiskers, Magikarp reached up and pressed the small white button on the dead centre front of the pokeball. At once, the pokeball opened up and sucked the water type within it in a beam of red light.

One, twice...three times the pokeball shook slightly in his hand, before letting loose a loud ping signifying a capture.

"...Huh," Ash murmured, standing up and looking at the pokeball. He was expecting to have to battle the Magikarp first, but this worked too. More importantly, "That was my first time catching a wild pokemon!" he shouted with a laugh, throwing Magikarp's pokeball into the air before catching it happily.

Well, besides Pikachu when he was a Pichu. But that didn't count, he wasn't a trainer then, and Oak was the one who ultimately threw the pokeball.

Eevee relaxed out of his stance with a snort, turning away from Ash with a deadpan eye roll, "Vee!" the little pokemon spat to the side.

That time, Ash's eyebrow did twitch. "Oh you shut up!" he growled in annoyance, good mood all but vanished. Grabbing the empty luxury ball at his waist, he lifted it up and returned the Eevee to inside of it. "I miss Ignis.." he sighed.

* * *

It was half an hour later when Ash came to a stop. According to his Pokegear, he was roughly around half way towards Viridian City. Not bad for just over an hour of travelling.

Seating himself at the bottom of a tree, the young trainer pulled three bowls from his bag and filled them up with some of the basic pokemon feed he'd received in his starter trainer care package. As soon as the bowls were filled and he stowed the bag of food way, he released his three pokemon.

When they appeared in front of of him, one before each bowl, they greeted him before turning to look at each other. Fang almost immediately ignored Magikarp and the electric types presence and began to eat, but Pikachu cocking a confused ear off to the side when he noticed Magikarp, "Pi?"

Reaching down, Ash pet Magikarp atop his yellow crest, "This is Magikarp buddy, I caught him on the way here," he explained.

"Karp karp!" Magikarp added, waving one of his little yellow whiskers happily in greeting.

Pikachu eyed the water type for a moment before raising one of his small yellow fists in a greeting. Then he turned towards his food, following the Eevee's lead and digging in to his food. Magikarp himself, eyed the bowl in front of him curiously, getting a chuckle out of Ash, "It's your food buddy," he explained, "Don't mind the taste too much, once I get a bit more money I'll see about getting food more suited to you." Basic pokemon feed, was geared towards the mono of all types, the normal type. Because every pokemon known to man, had an inclination to the normal type in some form. It was fine for Fang, he was a normal type after all, and Pikachu already knew that he'd have to rough it a little bit at the beginning with the bland – to him – food.

Magikarp though, he'd been a little worried before stopping for lunch about whether the little water type would be fine with the food.

His worries were unfounded though.

Reaching forward with one whisker, Magikarp grabbed one of the small pellets before depositing it in his mouth, chewing, then swallowing it. "Karp!" he cried eagerly, and with both whiskers began to toss one bit of food after another down his gullet.

That was when Ash remembered, Magikarp got by mainly on kelp, seaweed and the like because of their low battle power. They were pretty much scavengers for the most part in the wild.

A few minutes later, each pokemon had finished up their meals and Ash cleared his throat, drawing their attention, "Let's get some training in before we head the rest of the way to Viridian, alright?" the raven haired trainer said.

He pointed at Pikachu, then Fang, "Try teaching him Iron Tail will you?" he said, "He's pretty tough, but as he is now, he'll be useless against Brock." Ash explained.

Fang snarled at the implied slight to his strength, but Ash ignored him, instead gazing at Pikachu. The little electric type snapped off a quick salute, before wrapping his tail around Fang's snout and dragging him away.

Fang let loose a loud surprised yelp, struggling with all his might against Pikachu's tail, his padded feet digging small trenches in the ground, all for naught, he was powerless against Pikachu's strength.

That taken care of, he turned to Magikarp who was watching the spectacle in wonder, "Alright," he began, drawing his newest pokemon's attention, "There's a few attacks Magikarp can learn, but before we get into that, would you like a nickname? Just to say your my pokemon and different from other Magikarp." he questioned.

The Magikarp seemed to ponder over that for a moment before nodding in agreement. Ash smirked, "Alright then, how about...Levia?" he decided on after a few seconds thought, "Since you're a bit bigger than the average Magikarp, and one day soon you'll no doubt be a massive Gyarados." he explained.

The small water type nodded eagerly in reply. His smirk broadening a bit, Ash stood up and began collecting up his pokemon's empty bowls, "Right then," he began as he continued to tidy up his gear, "Like I said, there's a few attacks you can learn, and a few are actually really powerful, but we'll start with something simple, Bubble..."

* * *

Fourty-five minutes passed, and progress was made. Pikachu had been using Iron Tail for years, and after the little electric type passed the mechanics of the attack to the aggressive normal type, Ash grabbed the item he used to train Pikachu's tail from his bag.

He'd packed it last night, because he was going to get around to training Ignis' tail in much the same fashion, there were quite a few tail-based attacks the Charmander line could learn after all, like Iron Tail, Dragon Tail and such.

A Macho Brace. Heck, he used it himself sometimes, well both of them really since they came in a set. Regardless, Macho Brace's were simply put, weighted wristbands with adjustable width and imbued with the power of the Pokemon attack known as Gravity for adjustable weight.

They cost a pretty damn penny. A present from that jackass father of his for his 9th birthday.

Levia put whatever fears he'd had to rest. The pokedex had said Magikarp could learn these attacks, and even gave a rough guideline on how to go about it, but the reputation of the Magikarp species had left him with some doubts.

Levia was still a water type though, despite being at the bottom of the food chain. And a half hour in, the Magikarp began to spray out some small, loose bubbles. For the past fifteen minutes now, they'd just been working on making them bigger, fire in larger quantities and shoot faster.

It was as Ash was about to call an end to the training session that things went wild.

A blur shot down from the sky, Ash barely even registered it before he felt a sharp pain in his ribs and found himself laying on his back, staring up at the sky blearily, the distressed cries of Levia ringing in his ears.

"Karp, karp karp karp!"

Sitting up quickly, Ash winced slightly from the shooting pain in his ribs. To his immediate horror, he found Levia clutched in the talons of a large Pidgeotto and being carried off into the sky. Acting on instinct alone, he palmed his pokemon's pokeball and quickly hit the recall button.

The red beam shot into the air, closing the distance nearly faster than the eye could track, becoming thinner and thinner as it raced towards the Pidgeotto. Just before the beam tapered off though, it struck Levia's wriggling tail fin and recalled the water type.

The Pidgeotto gave a loud squawk of shock when it noticed its prey's disappearance. Then it turned to Ash, flapping its wings and staying afloat in place. Its keen eyes narrowed on him, and the pokeball clutched in his hands.

Give a cry of anger, the flying pokemon began to beat its wings towards him harshly. The raven haired trainer's eyes widened when he saw a barrage of glowing blue sickle-like wind blades launch down towards him.

Air Cutter he realized! They were too fast for him to dodge, so he did the only thing he could, "Pikachu!" he shouted loudly.

Call on his first pokemon.

Just as the barrage of wind blades were upon him, they were tore out of the air by a blinding scythe of yellow lightning. A moment later, there was a blur of motion in front of him as Pikachu stepped out of a Quick Attack enhanced dash and glared angrily up at the flying pokemon, little fists clenched and cheeks sparking. "Piiiika!" the electric type rumbled deeply.

Squawking again when its attack was repelled with ease, the Pidgeotto threw itself into a powerful dive, a blur of white exploding from its blank speeding it downwards to the point where it looked like a mere blur to Ash.

In mere seconds the Pidgeotto cleared the distance and speared right into an unmoving Pikachu's chest. Any normal Pikachu would have been knocked clean off their feet from the impact, especially when Pidgeotto had a height and weight advantage combined with the momentum from its dive and Quick Attack.

Yes, a normal Pikachu. But his Pikachu was in no way normal, not even before his father done 'that' to him.

Pikachu slid back...two inches. Then his little yellow paws grabbed tightly onto Pidgeotto's wings and the flying type was locked tight, and no matter how hard it began to struggle, it was to no avail. Just like with Fang.

Ash was feeling a little bit vindictive he decided as he began to scoot backwards. When he got to a good ten feet away, he staggered to his feet and swiped his arm through the air with a snarl, "Thunder!"

"Pika-CHU!" The electric type roared loudly, the sound coming off a bit odd from his diminutive form, His body lit up like a flashing yellow beacon, and then a massive pillar of electrical energy, easy five or more feet wide exploded from around him, piercing up through the sky in the blink of an eye, tearing the clouds from the sky,

When the pillar of yellow power dissipated seconds later, Pikachu let go and allowed the charred bird to drop limply to the ground, its only signs of life being the way its legs twitched slightly from the pain.

Favouring his ribs slightly, Ash grabbed his pokedex and pointed it at the unconscious flying type as Fang padded his way across and began to poke at the charred bird curiously, "_Pidgeotto, an evolved form of Pidgey. It is armed with sharp claws and dives from the sky to capture its prey. Unlike the more gentle Pidgey, Pidgeotto can be dangerous. Approach with extreme caution. Gender: Male, Height: 4'01" - Ability: Keen Eye – Attacks Known: Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Double Team, Refresh._" Damn right they needed to be approached with caution. The pokedex had this thing down to a 'T', it dove down, took his Magikarp and with just a glancing blow from its wing, had his him on the ground and his ribs flaring with pain.

...He threw one of his empty pokeballs. Fair was fair after all.

* * *

Ash sighed in relief as he walked through the front door of the red roofed Pokemon Center. Three hours it had taken him all in, including the time he took to catch his two new pokemon and the training session he'd partook in.

Not really a problem, he'd travelled further on foot without problem...usually. This time though, he'd had to deal with his throbbing ribs while he walked the last hour of distance He'd almost decided to just set up camp for the day, watch out for some more common Pokemon on Route 1 like Nidoran and such while putting his pokemon through his paces.

He tiredly greeted the kindly smiling Nurse Joy at the front desk, "Hello," he groaned lightly, slumping over the desk.

Nurse Joy eyed him worriedly for a moment, "Are you okay?" she asked him.

He nodded, slowly pulling each of his pokeballs from his belt and placing them on one of the empty pokeball trays on the counter, "Yeah," he answered, "I took a bit of a nasty hit from my new Pidgeotto when it tried to make off with my Magikarp." the amber eyed boy replied.

"Oh," he added, "My Pikachu kind of roasted it with a Thunder attack in retribution for it."

Joy sighed, waving over a Chansey off to the side and placed the tray of pokeballs in its hands, "Take these pokemon to examination room four please, Chansey," she requested. The pink healer pokemon nodded happily, and with a little salute of one of its tiny arms, carried the tray of pokeballs off deeper into the center. That dealt with, the pink haired woman turned her attention to Ash, "Shirt up please," she requested again, but there was a slight reprimand in her tone that told Ash he wouldn't like it if he agreed.

He'd seen this particular Nurse Joy a few times when he and Pikachu travelled between Pallet and Viridian, looking for opponents. The raven haired trainer sighed, he was thankful at the moment for the fact that he wore a tight and simple, sleeveless black singlet and a pair of bicep length black, fingerless gloves. Grasping the singlet at the bottom, he pulled it up above his chest, exposing his lean and slightly muscled torso to view.

Joy winced as she took in the large, dark pule bruise that had already formed on the right side of his ribs, "Nothing much I can do for that I'm afraid Ash," she told him, "You'll have to make do with a little taping and some pain medication." the pink haired nurse continued.

Walking around the desk, she gently grasped Ash's arm and tugged him gently alongside her, "Come along Ash," she said, "I'll tape you up this time, no toughing it out and sleeping it off this time for you." Joy continued with a light giggle.

Ash groaned. He'd clocked a headbutt to the chest from a Raticate last time he was here, with which, he'd done exactly as she said. Get a room for the night and sleep it off. It worked, kind of.

* * *

Half an hour later, Ash after getting his ribs taped and grabbing a quick bite to eat made his way into the trainer lounge. Oddly, there wasn't anyone here at the moment.

"Must be a slow day," he mused as he walked through the door.

His vibrant amber eyes scanned the wide open, green tiled room before settling on what he was looking for. A large notice board located atop the far wall of the room.

**Trainer Missions**

Trainers missions, were just that. Missions posted for Pokemon trainers to take up. They were posted in Pokemon Centre trainer lounges where most trainers tended to gather. Mostly posted by residents of that town or city, or because the actual mission took place around that area.

It was a good way to make a quick little sum of money, He and Pikachu had done one not too long ago, driving off a large flock of Spearow headed by a rather powerful Fearow in return for a nice little sum and even a one use Tm.

Power-up Punch, it was how he was able to teach Ignis the attack in the first place.

It wasn't even just money that were the rewards. Sometimes, the client offered items in place of money. Last time he was here, there was a migration of the Arcanine line, and the client had offered a permanent Hyper Beam Tm in return for catching the leader of the pack, a rather large and powerful Arcanine with an innate grasp on the Extremespeed attack. Sadly, someone else had already picked up the mission, and he wasn't actually allowed by law to catch pokemon legally until he got his trainer's license.

Too bad. Even just catching a Growlithe would have been awesome, Arcanine were amazing for travelling on land, they could scale almost any terrain, had endurance for days and were blindingly fast.

His eyes trailed over the board, taking in some of the listed missions;

**Missing Meowth – **_4,500 Poke Dollars_

**Capture Nidoran Male/Female **_– 6,500 Poke Dollars_

**Sandshrew Infestation**_ – Water Stone_

Interesting. Well, he had no idea where to start with the Meowth one, but the other two would be easy enough….his thoughts trailed off as his eyes landed on one mission slip stashed down on the bottom left corner, out of the way. Curious, Ash lifted the mission slip form the board and looked it over.

**Viridian Forest Scyther** – _1__7__,500 Poke Dollars_

The mission details went on to explain that there had been a recent migration of Scyther that passed through the Viridian Forest a month or so back according to the dates. While they were there, a young hotshot of the flock decided to try and challenge the leader, and subsequently lost. It was common knowledge that if a Scyther lost a duel, it as kicked out of the flock. When the flock moved on from the forest, that Scyther stayed and made a home in the Viridian Forest. It had managed to elude league sanctioned trainers up till now and had caused quite a few incidents when running in to beginning trainers making their way through the forest.

Ash smirked, this one actually might be a decent opponent for Pikachu. It had been a long while since Pikachu had fought a Pokemon on his level, the wild ones around Pallet and Viridian City couldn't usually measure up, and the likes of Oak's Pokemon and his fathers more powerful Pokemon just far outclassed Pikachu as he was currently.

Not to mention, the mission slip only specified that the Scyther needed to be removed from the forest. It didn't say he couldn't catch it – and a Scyther would a welcome addition to his team. Not to mention, the client was the League itself, so he could cash it in at Pewter City after catching the pokemon and not have to worry about making his way backwards through the forest to cash it in here in Viridian.

The amber eyed trainer was just about to make his way back out towards the front desk to inform Nurse Joy of the mission he was taking part in, when he was interrupted by a voice behind him, "I thought I'd find you here,"

It was a smooth and cultured voice. And it made Ash scowl almost immediately, the mission slip scrunching up in his palm as he clenched his fist, "What are you doing here?" the raven haired trainer growled, turning around to face the owner of the voice.

Amber eyes met pitch black ones and a contest of wills took place, both sets of orbs boring into each other, before the black pair closed slightly and a chuckle rang out, "As rebellious as ever my son," Giovanni, leader of Viridian City Gym mused. "You know, Silver is much more compliant than you."

Ash rolled his eyes, stuffing the mission slip in his pocket, "Yeah?" he growled, "Go bother him then." he continued as he began to walk towards the door. It was just disappointing that Giovanni stood in front of it, now wasn't it?

Despite the rude tone, Giovanni merely chuckled again, his tan and handsome features expressing a sliver of joy, "Silver is talented Indeed," his father replied, "But he lacks the fire you do, that rebellious attitude of yours will take you further than any natural talent you possess."

And as always, Ash barely understood what the hell his old man was talking about. He always seemed so proud when Ash rebelled against him...and it made the act of rebelling less satisfying, which annoyed Ash even more and led him to rebel even further. It was like a cycle.

Ash sighed as he stopped in front of his father, "What'ya want?" he asked again, his eyes narrow.

Giovanni acted like he didn't even hear him, "How's that Charmander of yours? Ignis was it?" the ground type gym leader asked, "Has it evolved yet?" He continued, idly brushing a piece of lint from his immaculate black suit.

Ash set his jaw before replying, "Close, his scales are already turning red," Which was true, he'd been training Ignis for months before today when he was supposed to get the little guy and he'd noticed the little fire type's orange scales beginning to darken into a red colour.

He wasn't about to tell his father what happened with Ignis though. He knew what his father was like under that genial mask he liked to show, even to him. He wouldn't take a slight like that lightly, even if it wasn't actually against him. He didn't need Giovanni to fight his battles, he'd get Ignis back on his own.

"Now, answer me!" Ash growled.

Giovanni sighed, "Can't a father come to wish his son a happy birthday?" he asked almost sadly, but Ash knew better, "It's not everyday a boy turns ten after all," the gym leader continued.

Ash didn't bat an eye, "You didn't bother coming for my birthday last year, just sent gifts over with a Fearow." he deadpanned in reply.

"That's why I'm here now, to make up for it," Giovanni replied seamlessly. Reaching down towards his side, he retrieved a luxury ball from his pocket and held it up for Ash to take, "I remember how much you liked this species of pokemon, so I had this one especially bred for you starting your journey."

Ash hesitated for a moment before taking the pokeball. He wasn't one to look a gift Mudbray in the face, a pokemon was a pokemon, and despite his misgivings with his father, he knew the man was regarded as the strongest gym leader in Kanto, if not in the world – someone who could give even the Elite Four trouble.

After Ash took the pokeball, Giovanni clapped him gently on the shoulder, a proud beaming smile stretching across his handsome face, "Good luck son, I expect to hear great things about you." Then he was gone, disappearing through the doorway.

Ash stood there dumbly for a moment, watching his form disappear before turning his attention to the black pokeball in his hand, "Well, better see what you are then," he mused.

His eyes widened as he scanned the Pokeball with his pokedex, a function only available because the pokeball was registered under his name, as expected of his father, "_Treecko, the Wood Gecko Pokémon. Treecko are able to climb smooth vertical walls and use their thick tail to attack opponents. Since Treecko build their nests in large trees it is said that those trees will live a very long life. __Gender: Male, Height: 1'08" - Ability: Overgrow – Attacks Known: Dragonbreath, Energy Ball, Quick Attack, Rock Slide, Thunderpunch_."

He only had one word, "Damn!" his father really knew how to breed Pokemon!

* * *

**Ash's Pokemon**

Pikachu (No Nickname): Male – Static

Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Light Screen

Eevee (Fang): Male – Adaptability

Quick Attack, Shadow Ball, Bite, Sand Attack, Iron Tail

Magikarp (Levia): Male – Rattled

Splash, Tackle, Bounce, Bubble

Pidgeotto (No Nickname): Male – Keen Eye

Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Double Team, Refresh

Treecko (No Nickname): Male – Overgrow

Dragonbreath, Energy Ball, Quick Attack, Rock Slide, Thunderpunch

* * *

**And we're done guys. A bit short, I know. I could have easily continued into Viridian Forest, highlighted some more training and maybe got around to a few battles. But I thought the discussion with Giovanni was a good place to leave off.**

**Despite only being a bit over 5,000 words long, a lot has happened this chapter. Ash has made it from Pallet to Viridian, he's caught two new Pokemon, got a little bit of training in, decided on a mission to take and even received a well bred pokemon from his newly introduced father, Giovanni. And I mean newly for you guys, not that it wasn't really obvious in the first place, but you get my drift, his debut...yay.**

**That's pretty much all I can think off. I'm having a total brain fart at the moment. Either wya, hope you guys enjoyed, and hopefully the next chapter won't take as god awful long as this one did.**


	4. Chapter 4

**And here we are guys, back with Chapter 4. I've had a little bit of free time the past few days, and while I'm in the Pokemon mood I wanted to work on this story a bit since I spent so long without updating it.**

**How do you feel about the new story title? It's short and to the point, not like the old one which was a massive mouthful. But I'm not sure if its fits, what do you think? Maybe I should add a (Title - Pending) label in the summary. Bah, it doesn't really matter. I'm just happy I'm finally getting somewhere with this story.**

**I was sure I wanted to tell you guys something, but I can't remember what. Oh well, doesn't really matter at the moment I guess, I'll let you guys get on with it and read the chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

**Edit: A big thanks to Mateusz who helped me out a ton with his review. He even gave me a much better title to choose from that fit so much better than 'Chosen'.**

* * *

After spending the rest of the day and then night at the Pokemon Centre, Ash set off the very next morning.

It was while he was on his way to the Viridian Forest, that Ash was stopped by a passing brown haired youth who noted the Pokeballs on his belt and asked him for a battle.

After accepting, the brown haired boy released his pokemon, a primarily red coloured avian with black and yellow wings appeared in front of him, it wasn't very big, a decent bit smaller than his Pidgeotto, but it was a pokemon Ash was unfamiliar with.

"What pokemon is that?" he asked curiously.

The pokemon's trainer grinned, "This is my buddy Fletchinder," he replied, "Caught him when I was on vacation in the Kalos Region a little while back." he explained.

Scanning it with the pokedex told Ash, that it was the evolved form of Fletchling, and the pre-evolved form of Talonflame. A species of pokemon native to the Kalos Region, and rather rare to be seen outside that region outside of migration patterns. Much more interesting, was that it was both a fire, and a flying type.

What a rare typing, the only fire and flying type Ash knew off the top of his head was Charizard. A dual typing that was near murder for a grass type to defeat.

Levia couldn't win this fight, he wasn't really ready to battle yet. He ruled out Pikachu because he wanted to test out his newer pokemon in a real battle. That decided, he palmed one of the luxury balls on his belt and enlarged it.

"Treecko, let's do it!" he said, releasing the grass type pokemon. He already had a rough idea of what Fang was fully capable of at the moment, but besides meeting and greeting Treecko and Pidgeotto the previous night, he hadn't really seen much of their capabilities besides a little demonstration of their attacks.

The little green reptile pokemon appeared before him, yellow eyes shining and a small twig held within his mouth like a tooth pick. The grass type regarded its opponent calmly before crossing his arms and giving Ash a small side glance.

His opponent blinked, "Why are you sending a grass type out against Fletchinder?" he asked, "You know a grass type has a major disadvantage against a fire and flying type right?"

"It doesn't really matter, does it?" Ash replied.

The brown haired boy shook his head, "You're funeral pal," he said back before pointing at Treecko, "Let's win this Fletchinder, Ember!" he ordered.

Fletchinder fired a barrage of tiny flame bullets from its beak, the spheres of fire shooting across towards Treecko quickly. Ash didn't bother saying anything, and just allowed Treecko to spring off to the side and avoid the flame bullets, allowing them to smash into his previous position and scorch the ground black.

"Get in close with Wing Attack!" its trainer continued the moment Treecko dodged.

Breaking off its attack, Fletchinder shot forward, wings erupting with bright white light and closing the distance between it and Treecko quickly.

This time, Ash did act, "Get behind it with Quick Attack," he ordered sharply.

Treecko shot off like a bullet towards Fletchinder, his form a mere blur. Ash was actually quite impressed by the move, Treecko's was a decent bit faster than Fang's.

"Quick Attack too!" the birds trainer was quick to counter.

Just when Treecko was about to swerve around Fletchinder, the dual type bird suddenly gained a frightening increase of speed and before Treecko could react, took a glowing white wing to the face.

Treecko cried out in pain and was hit hard enough to be launched off his feet. But the little grass type proved his metal, recovering mid air he flipped backwards and landed on his feet before Ash. The second he landed, he spat the twig in his mouth at Fletchinder, the little twig shooting through the air like a tiny wooden lance.

Ash took advantage of that, "Energy ball!"

Treecko cupped his small hands over each other and a small swirling sphere of green energy bloomed into existence. When Flitchinder weaved to the side of the twig to dodge it, Treecko wound his arm like he was throwing a base ball and pitched the green orb of power through the air, speeding towards Fletchling.

It wasn't fast enough though, Fletchinder reacted with amazing speed and turned around, smacking a Wing attack into the orb and bashing it off high into the sky.

"Charge towards it with another Energy Ball," Ash continued simply.

Creating another sphere of energy between his palms, Treecko dashed forward – even without Quick Attack, the little grass type speedily zoomed towards Fletchinder and closed the distance between them.

"Flamethrower, now!" his opponent commanded in return.

Flames danced in Fletchinder's beak, before it threw its head forward and shot forth a large torrent of flames towards Treecko's running form. As the flames were upon Treecko, the small grass type pitched his Energy Ball forward to meet the flames. Both attacks collided, before the energy sphere imploded, breaking the minute stalemate they had.

But more importantly, covering the area in a light cloud of smoke. Just what Ash had been hoping for, "Jump, and use Dragonbreath!" he shouted quickly.

Not even a second later, Treecko exploded up and out of the smoke cloud and fired a wide green beam of power from his mouth. Fletchinder, still committed to its Flamethrower attack had no chance to dodge as the beam washed over it with explosive force and pushed it towards the ground.

"Fletchinder!" Its trainer shouted in worry.

'_Time to finish this,_' Ash thought, "Quick Attack into ThunderPunch!"

Angling himself into a dive, white energy exploded from Treecko's feet, launching the grass type speeding down towards the grounded flying and fire type. Before Fletchinder could recover, Treecko was upon it with a fist sparking madly with electricity and delivered a powerful blow right to the downed pokemon's face.

Fletchinder gave a screech of pain for a moment, before falling silent. His opponent down, Treecko leapt backwards with his powerful little legs and landed by Ash's side.

The birds trainer sighed, "Good try," he said simply, before returning his pokemon. As soon as his pokemon disappeared into its pokeball, Ash heard a faint beeping noise from his pokedex and lifted it up curiously.

A small message was displayed upon the screen;

**Ash Ketchum vs Nathan Green – Winner: Ash Ketchum – Winnings: 1,500 Pokedollars**

"Huh, that's interesting," he commented. Until now, Ash hadn't really known how the money winnings of a battle were distributed. He knew the loser gave up a specific sum, for instance – that if he lost the battle, he would have had to ante up 500 Poke Dollars as a beginning trainer.

Nathan it seemed, had been a trainer a decent bit longer than him.

His opponent, now known as Nathan by Ash noticed him looking at his pokedex, "First battle, eh?" he asked, walking over to him.

Ash nodded, "Yeah," he replied, before turning a curious look on the brown haired youth, "How did the pokedex know we were having a battle?" the raven haired trainer questioned.

Nathan ran a hand through his brown hair, "I don't actually know fully to be honest," he replied, "I only know that it's an automatic system tied into the pokeballs coded to your ownership, how it can tell between a real battle and the likes of training, I have no idea." the brown haired boy explained.

"But man," Nathan groaned as he continued, "I really didn't expect a new trainer's Treecko to put the hurt on my Fletchinder."

Ash smirked, "Well, a good lesson for you to not underestimate any opponent then," he replied.

Nathan laughed lightly, "Yeah, I suppose its my own fault for just assuming like that," he said, "Either way dude, it was a fun little battle, but I better get Fletchinder to the Pokemon Centre, so I'll catch you later." With a friendly pat on the shoulder, Nathan bid him goodbye and was on his way back towards Viridian City.

Ash watched him go for a moment before turning his attention to the Treecko still silently standing by his side, scrutinising the area around them calmly with his arms crossed, and somehow with another twig jutting from his mouth. Kneeling down, he patted the little grass type gently on the head, "Good job there buddy," he told the pokemon with a smile, "For your first battle, that was amazing."

Treecko stared him in the eyes for a moment before looking off to the side with a grunt. Ash chuckled at his newest pokemon's cool and calm attitude. Standing up to his full height, the raven haired trainer continued, "I'm gonna keep you out okay? We're going to be entering Viridian Forest soon and I heard there's quite a few swarms of Beedrill in there," he told the grass type, "Pikachu's stronger, but I heard Treecko are really good with tree's and forest terrain, so you'll probably be our best bet for outrunning the swarms if they find us, and tracking that Scyther."

Treecko nodded at his reasoning and fell in beside him as he started walking towards the forest. Now that he thought about it, it was kind of obvious as well that Pidgeotto would be a great help as well with his aerial abilities.

As soon as he thought that, he released the flying type from his pokeball. Almost immediately, he staggered slightly as Pidgeotto swooped down and perched himself on his shoulder and nuzzled against the side of his face fondly. It was a bit awkward, mostly due to the pokemon's height, but he managed somehow.

Pidgeotto funnily enough, took to him almost immediately after he let him out of his pokeball last night and fed him. In fact, as he greeted all of his new pokemon fully last night and introduced himself, the bird pokemon had become rather affectionate for reasons he couldn't fathom.

Not that he was complaining. Treecko was calm and cool constantly he'd noticed, and Fang was a regular little ball of pain in the ass to deal with, picking fights with the rest almost constantly. Pikachu outside of battling, was actually really lazy, so he was no help. So yeah, it was good that the relationships with atleast two of his new pokemon were off to a good start.

Two because, Levia was just as affectionate if not more so than Pidgeotto. The water type especially seemed to love it when Ash gently rubbed him along his yellow crest.

Anyway, after explaining the situation to Pidgeotto, they resumed their trek on route to the Viridian Forest. Just a bit outside the forest, Ash remembered something, "So, I was wondering, do you guys want nicknames like Fang and Levia?" he questioned.

* * *

Half an hour later, he was trekking through the forest, both of his pokemon still outside their balls. "Kaze?" Ash questioned.

The Pidgeotto on his shoulders shook his head in the negative.

He'd been at it for nearly twenty five minutes now – coming up with a nickname for his flying pokemon that was. The Treecko was a quick and calm affair, just like the grass type himself. Blitz he'd agreed on almost immediately, named after his speed and powerful Thunderpunch attack.

But since then, while he threw out one name after another to the Pidgeotto, Blitz had been taking care of any wild pokemon that tried to impede them. So far, they'd only seen a few common Caterpie, Pidgey, Weedle and the odd Spinarak.

"Plume?" Ash tried again, only for the Pidgeotto to shake his head again. He groaned, coming to a stop in the middle of a small clearing, "Let's take a break for now, your talons are digging into my shoulder and it's getting a bit painful now." he decided.

He was just about to shoo the bird from his shoulder for a bit, when he squawked happily and jumped into the air, beating his wings to stay afloat in front of Ash, "What?" the amber eyed boy questioned dumbly.

Blitz sighed, ignoring the duo as he made his way over to a tree and leapt up onto one of its long branches and reclined against the tree in a relaxed fashion. The Pidgeotto though, with Ash's attention still on him, lifted both of his feet up into the air and wiggled his talons in Ash's face. Ash started at the pokemon blankly for a moment before realizing what he meant, "Talon?" he asked, finally understanding what had his pokemon excited.

The flying pokemon nodded happily and Ash laughed, "Right then, your name is Talon from now on!" he named the pokemon.

* * *

After naming Talon, Ash decided that while they were resting, then was as good a time as any to stop for a quick lunch. While they ate, Ash took the time to watch his team socialize with each other.

They got along pretty well for the most part. Even Levia who had initially been a bit wary of Talon after the way the bird pokemon almost nabbed him for dinner. There were only two little snags.

Blitz, his Treecko mostly kept to himself. Preferring to sit up on the branch of a tree and relax rather than socialize within the group. He atleast was nice enough to his teammates though.

Which was more than could be said for Fang. The little Eevee practically outright ignored Levia, deeming the water type unimportant in some form, where as with the others the normal type kept trying to pick fights. Blitz ignored him entirely, and Talon seemingly turned the other cheek and happily sat with Levia. Pikachu...well his small electric buddy was the main target of Fang's ire, but the normal type was no match for his first pokemon and whenever he tried to attack, Pikachu pinned him to the ground under his powerful lightning bolt shaped tail without much trouble.

After everyone was finished eating and Ash cleaned up their gear again, he decided to put his team through their paces, get some more training in before he began to track that Scyther. Blitz was pretty well off attack wise, the only thing he really was missing at the basic level was a way to use that powerful tail of his – so after fishing out his other macho brace, he strapped it to the grass types tail and sent him off with Pikachu and Fang to work on learning Iron Tail.

With Talon, he wanted to start working on Steel Wing. But had no viable option at the moment for strengthening his wings, so instead, he had the bird pokemon work on infusing flying type energy into his wings in an attempt to learn Wing Attack.

That left Levia, whom Ash worked with personally. Magikarp, and more so Gyarados were a very hardy line, and one common thing he'd come across in the pokedex was that they grew more under stress. In that regard, he had Levia using Bounce to travel throughout the clearing and fire Bubble attack after Bubble attack at intended targets, it not only worked on his Bubble attack, but drained his energy and strained his muscles – preparation for the next attack he wanted Levia to learn, the attack that Ash hoped would translate into rapid growth and later evolution into Gyarados for the Magikarp.

Reversal.

While his pokemon were training, Ash was busy with his pokedex – getting a look at the evolutionary lines of his pokemon and some if the best ways to raise them. The pokedex was a real marvel, filled to the brim with all kinds of information from pokemon, taken from some of the best bests on the planet ranging from Regional Professors like Professor Oak, to Breeders, to even single type masters – heck there was even some information in there about the Treecko line from Lance, bringing up that despite being a grass type, Treecko was in the dragon egg group and shared many characteristics with dragons, just like the Charizard line did.

It was as he was reading over a piece of information on the Pidgeot evolutionary line, about how if they could beat their wings both fast and hard enough, they could create enough heat friction to use the attack Heat Wave – that he was startled from his research by the feeling of some long and thin rubbing gently against his leg.

Lowering his pokedex a bit in curiosity, Ash was a bit surprised to find a small Weedle rubbing up against his leg and eyeing him with just as much curiosity. He was just about to shoo the little pokemon away before one of his pokemon found it here and took offensive action when something occurred to him.

It would be a lot easier to track down that Scyther if he had a resident of the forest helping him. Plus, Beedrill were known to be rather fast and even better, were a poison type. Bug as well, like Scyther and while having two bugs was a bit contradictory, he didn't really mind. He wanted to have his types covered – and there probably weren't many poison types in the forest besides the likes of Oddish and Bellsprout – he highly doubted he'd find a Skorupi in here, they tended to prefer marsh lands over normal forests.

Reaching down, the gently rubbed under the Weedle's chin, the small bug pokemon preening into his touch, "Hey little guy," he greeted the pokemon softly.

He didn't even bother calling over one of his other pokemon. Low level pokemon like this, unless they were a paragon of their species had no chance of fighting off the capture mechanism at their level of strength. While the Weedle was preening into his touch, he grabbed an empty pokeball from his belt and gently tapped it against the pokemons small head. The Weedle didn't even have time to blink in surprise before it was sucked inside.

Moments later, the pokeball let out a loud ping signifying a successful capture.

"Now, let's see what we have to work with, shall we?" Ash hummed in interest, eyeing the pokeball.

Bringing up his pokedex, he hit the scan function, "_Weedle. The stinger on this Pokémon's head guarantees that any attacker will get the point right where it hurts.__Gender: Male, Height: 1'00" - Ability: Shield Dust – Attacks Known: Poison Sting, String Shot_."

Ash looked the pokeball over for a moment, amber eyes peering at the small red and white sphere intensely, "That makes six huh?" he mused to himself, clipping the pokeball back on his belt- he'd introduce Weedle to the rest and meet it himself after they were done training, "Good thing I disabled my carry limit." he chuckled lightly.

The carry limit was something that could be applied for with whatever establishment passed them as a trainer and gave the trainer their pokemon. In Ash's case, that would be Professor Oak. It was something implemented for trainers who couldn't afford to look after excess pokemon they had – people who ran the role, like Oak gained funding from the League itself to provide food for those pokemon. New trainers automatically had a carry limit of six in the beginning.

Ash went ahead and disabled it the moment he left Oak's lab. Admittedly, he didn't think he'd already have six pokemon when he was only a day into his journey, but regardless he was confident in his ability to provide for his pokemon. Even if he only won one battle a day without taking any missions, he could easily provide for his pokemon, even if they' have to rough it a bit with basic pokemon feed.

In Ash's honest opinion, the carry limit was invented for two types of trainers. The ones who wanted to focus on smaller teams, and the scrubs, as Gary was fond of calling them - who couldn't make it anywhere as trainers. And there were a lot of scrubs Gary assured Ash whenever the subject was brought up. The Oak Ranch was filled with pokemon the scrubs couldn't care for after all.

Ash palmed his forehead lightly, "Uggghh," he groaned, "He's even got me calling them scrubs now." the Pallet native lamented.

* * *

Two hours later, Ash called an end to the training session. His team looked exhausted, Levia most of all – he'd been using two attacks over and over with almost no break. He had to hand it to the water type, he had some impressive stamina. Must have been from all that training he saw the Magikarp doing alone before he caught him.

Most of his team looked exhausted he corrected himself, allowing his amber eyes to roam over the team and land on Pikachu who'd literally sat on his backside and watched Fang and Blitz go about their buisness, every now and then throwing them a hint or some tips.

Ash wasn't actually sure how to proceed with Pikachu's training at the moment. He was way beyond the point a normal trainer would evolve their Pikachu into Raichu, and he was limited in his progress as a Pikachu – the toughest of training for the smallest of gains.

He'd tried everything he could think of at this point. From weight training, to endurance training...heck he'd even put Pikachu through some resistance training not long ago, strapping the little guy with both macho braces and having him swim underwater against river current.

He'd been thinking on how to continue with Pikachu for a while now. And he only saw two options, continue as they were for the smallest of gains, but start adding more attacks to Pikachu's bucket list – like Volt Tackle, he'd been wanting to get around to working on that with him for a while now. Or evolve him to Raichu with a thunder stone.

The raven haired trainer shook his head, '_doesn't matter right now_,' he mused. He couldn't evolve Pikachu either way until he got his hands on a thunder stone, so continuing as they were and having him learn some new attacks along the way.

"Well," Ash began, gaining his pokemon's attention, "Before I put you guys in your pokeballs for a well deserved rest – I've got somebody here I want you guys to meet." he told them, lifting Weedle's pokeball from his belt.

Pikachu cocked his little head in interest, while both Talon and Levia hopped over in interest and began to inspect the pokeball. Blitz, regarded it cooly as he'd come to expect from the little grass type. And Fang...well Fang was barely paying attention, finding it more interesting to scratch at the back of his head with one of his hind legs.

"He's a Weedle guys, a bug and poison type, so make sure to give him a warm welcome okay?" Ash told them before releasing the pokemon from his pokeball.

Weedle appeared in amongst the pokemon and almost instantly shrank down onto his belly in fear when he caught sight of the group surrounding him. None of his pokemon made a move, so Ash crouched down and gently stroked the bug pokemon gently along the back, "No need to be scared little guy." he told the pokemon, "These guys are my pokemon, just like you are now, they won't hurt you." Ash said soothingly.

Hesitantly, the little bug peeked up at the pokemon surrounding him, and when none of them made a move, the bug and poison type slowly relaxed, cocking his little head curiously at the pokemon, "Wee?"

In response, Levia happily bounced over and began to pat the smaller pokemon on the head with one of his whiskers, Talon happily following suit and greeting the Weedle enthusiastically. Pikachu and Blitz tossed a couple of waves and quiet greetings of their own, where as Fang continued to ignore the newly caught pokemon.

Ash frowned slightly, he'd have to do something about Fang soon. But he couldn't exactly force the normal type pokemon to be compliant. He knew Fang had reasons that he'd had to get tough and aggressive for, but he had to find some way to separate that reason from everything else, keep it from clouding the Eevee.

Once the pokemon finished introducing themselves to one another, he returned them all besides Weedle. He'd trained a bit longer than he expected, so he wanted them rested up for when they tracked down that Scyther.

Crouching down he spoke to his newest pokemon, "Hey little buddy," he started, "Before we start, I was wondering if you'd like a nickname to help you stand out from other Weedle?" he asked.

Weedle regarded him curiously for a moment before nodding in agreement, "Dill dill, weedle!"

Ash thought on it for a minute. Dart? Hmm, maybe. Spike? Nah. Driller – eh, too cliché. He eyed the stinger atop Weedle's head, noting how it reminded him of a lance. His eyes widened slightly, that'd do. "How about Lancer?" he asked.

Weedle considered the name for a moment before happily nodding again in another agreement.

"Right then, Lancer," he began with a grin, extending his arm out towards the pokemon and letting it crawl up his arm and situate himself on his shoulder, "I heard there's a Scyther here in the forest, do you know where I can find it? I'm here to get it out of here and stop it from bothering everyone."

Lancer's small eyes widened, before he started to quickly point with his tail off somewhere in the distance of his right side. "That way?" he asked, turning towards where the pokemon was pointing. When his pokemon nodded, he started walking in that direction.

* * *

For a good twenty minutes, Lancer led Ash deeper and deeper into the forest, off the established route through to Pewter City and into thick foliage.

Something sounded in his hears, a decent ways off. He couldn't tell what it was – but regardless, the young trainer from Pallet gripped one of his pokeballs tightly, ready to let the pokemon inside out at the slightest buzzing noise.

He was wary. It was common knowledge that the Beedrill swarms occupied the deep forest area. Because of that many avoided the area, both people and pokemon alike. Only the toughest or most reckless pokemon would live in Beedrill territory alone.

This Scyther was probably a bit of both. Even the average Scyther were strong, with their armoured carapaces, great speed and bladed arms, they made a formidable foe. And this was apparently a young hotshot that was kicked from its own swarm for trying to wrestle leadership away from its previous leader.

As he continued forward, even deeper, the brisk sounds he heard began to get both louder and closer. It sounded like guttural shouts, clanging blades and then a loud thump rang out, reaching even Ash's ears from where he paused a good twenty feet away.

"Pinsir, not you too!" a young, male voice cried out in panic.

Ash narrowed his eyes, pushing forward. Whoever it was, they sounded like they needed help. Picking up speed as he walked, Ash pushed through a group of thick pushes and burst out the other side, coming to a stop in a wide open clearing.

Ash's eyes scanned the clearing, taking in the wide space out of the tree's and even a small pond on the opposite side. Then his eyes landed on the other occupants of the clearing. Three of them to be exact, and they turned to look at him the moment he entered the clearing, gauging him and his Weedle cautiously.

His eyes first landed on a boy around his age, a katana gripped in his hand and an odd samurai like helmet wore atop his head. In front of the samurai like boy, a large brown armoured pokemon with large twin pincers on its head lay face first on the ground.

A little ways a way, there stood his target, with blue eyes narrowed upon him. The green carapace covered bug hissed threateningly at him, taking its attention from the samurai boy and his pokemon, grinding its bladed arms together to produce a shrill ringing noise not unlike metal on metal.

Ash smirked at the pokemon, "There you are Scyther," he said to it, "I've been looking for you."

"What are you doing?" the samurai boy demanded angrily, recalling his downed Pinsir, "Run while you still can! This thing has defeated both my Butterfree and my Pinsir with ease." he continued, hurriedly making his way over to Ash and then passing right by him, lingering only slightly and then continuing on to escape through the foliage when Ash merely ignored him.

To quote Gary – bug catchers were the bottom of the barrel when it came to scrubs. Eyeing the Scyther that seemed perfectly fine after apparently defeating both a Butterfree and a Pinsir, Ash had to conclude that either this thing was monstrously strong, or that samurai boy was a scrub.

Ash was betting on the scrub. If Scyther was monstrously strong, it wouldn't have gotten booted from its swarm in the first place. It hissed louder at him, but he ignored it for the moment with ease born from dealing with dozens of wild pokemon making threatening gestures at him, instead the boy grabbed his pokedex and help it up, "If it comes at us, fire your Poison Sting," he told the pokemon on his shoulder before hitting the scan button on his pokedex.

"_Scyther, the Mantis Pokémon. Its claws are sharp as swords, and it is a powerful flyer. This Pokémon is rarely seen by humans and almost never captured.__Gender: Male, Height: __4'11" – Ability: Technician – Attacks Known: Razor Wind, Aerial Ace, Detect, Skull Bash_," the pokedex relayed to him.

The attacks were rather basic, but its ability was Technician. Even a simple Tackle attack from this pokemon would be much stronger than normal. Technician was an ability that enhanced every attack from a pokemon. Harder physical blows, faster speed techniques like Quick Attack, it could even enhance defensive moves like Protect.

Thinking quickly, Ash released both Fang and Blitz. Blitz eyed Scyther cautiously, while Fang met its threatening hiss' head on with a snarl of his own. "This guys pretty strong, so hit him hard and hit him fast," he told his pokemon, "Don't give him even a moment to recover."

When he pokemon nodded, he gave a few brisk orders, "Fang, Shadow Ball! Blitz, Quick Attack and ThunderPunch!"

Fang formed the crackling dark sphere of miasmic power and shot it off like a bullet, while Blitz shot forward in a blur from the opposite side.

Ash saw the Scyther's eyes glow a bright green before it turned its attention to Blitz rushing it. Not even looking at the Shadow Ball whizzing towards it, the Scyther swiped one bladed arm towards the ghost type attack and launched a blade of wind that met it head on and caught right through it.

Fang snarled, jumping to the side as the blade of wind continued on towards him. As soon as he landed on his padded paws, he followed Blitz's lead and charged the mantis pokemon with a Quick attack.

At the same time, Blitz reached Scyther and lunged forward, fist sparking with a powerful electric charge. The heavy punch missed as Scyther span around the Treecko with ease, its legs exploding with a bright white energy. The ThunderPunch overshot Blitz, and before the grass type could recover, Scyther completed its spin and came around delivering a devastating kick to the grass types face with enough force to send the Treecko rocketing backwards.

Scyther wasn't finished either. Before its kicking leg even touched the ground, the mantis pokemon used its other leg to push off and lunge towards the charging Eevee. Fang snarled angrily, not backing down – another shadow ball forming in front of his face.

But before the normal type could launch it, a large orange aura spiralled outwards around Scyther and as the Eevee jumped to fire its ghostly sphere of power, the bug pokemon rammed a full body tackle, head first, infused with its spiralling orange aura of energy into Fang's much smaller body.

Fang gave out a loud yip of pain before blasting backwards and smashing into a tree with enough force to snap it in half. Ash blinked in shock, "No way!" he denied disbelievingly, looking over both of his pokemon, noting that neither of them were even attempting to rise, likely both unconscious, "All it took was one hit a piece?" Damn this thing was strong.

Well relatively. Both Fang and Blitz were still quite fatigued from the training they'd done earlier, no doubt if they were fresh they would have made a better showing. But still, this Scyther was really strong regardless – no wonder it caused so much trouble for a lot of beginning trainers lately.

If Ash had only been introduced to training Pokemon for the first time yesterday, he was sure he'd have been panicking mightily at the moment. But he wasn't, so he didn't. He noticed the Scyther turn to him after dealing with his pokemon, legs tensing as it prepared to rush him, "Poison Sting," he commanded sharply.

Weedle quickly fired off a barrage of sharp purple needles. The Scyther dealt with it easily enough, slashing its bladed arms through the air and brushing the needles aside without issue. But, the attack wasn't meant to do damage, merely delay the mantis pokemon. And it worked.

It gave him just enough time to recall both Fang and Blitz into their pokeballs and then release Talon from his own pokeball - the Pidgeotto letting loose a piercing shriek to herald his arrival on the battlefield.

"Air Cutter!" Ash was quick to command, pointing at the Scyther.

Talon didn't even pause for a moment, beating his wings harshly and throwing a barrage of his own. A multitude of glowing blue sickle like wind blades rained down rapidly with enough sharpness behind them to cut through a tree with ease.

Scyther hissed, eyes beginning to glow green again as it began to rapidly swing its bladed arms towards the Air Cutter attack, throwing wind blade after wind blade with Razor Wind attack to meet the barrage head on.

Ash was fairly sure he knew what the glowing green eyes were, but he'd like to check just to make sure. "Double Team, then Quick Attack!" the raven haired trainer ordered.

Pidgeotto glowed bright white, then gave another piercing shriek. Bursting into existence all around his form were dozens of clones whom all immediately threw themselves into dives and shoot down towards Scyther from all angles, a blazing trail of white shooting from their back ends.

The Scyther though remained completely calm. And when the multitude of Pidgeotto clones were upon it, the Pokemon merely turned and gave a powerful slash to its right. Talon gave a loud squawk of annoyance, swerving to avoid the attack and ascending back into the air, having to pull a few acrobatic movements mid air to avoid the onslaught of wind blades that the Scyther fired at it in retaliation.

Ash eyed the mantis pokemon, noting as the glow faded from its eyes and they returned to blue. And the deep breaths that racked the pokemon's frame. That was definitely Detect, and while Scyther had yet to take any damage, it was bound to be getting tired with all the attacks it had used.

It had already fought both a Butterfree and a Pinsir before he got here. In the brief fight with Fang and Blitz, he counted four attacks, Razor Wind to take care of the Shadow Ball, Detect to dodge Blitz, Aerial Ace to defeat the grass type and then Skull Bash from what he guessed with it being the only other attack it hadn't used by then to defeat Fang. Then against Talon it used Detect and Razor Wind twice.

Either way, it and Talon were stalemated as they were. He had to break through its Detect somehow, and then before it could react, bombard it with a series of attacks.

A loose plan began to form in his head. As a strategist, Gary was much better than him. But when it came to thinking on his feet and adapting to the rhythm of a battle, Ash had yet to meet anyone who could keep up with him. Not even his old man could adapt as quickly as he could. He'd seen that much when he and Pikachu got their revenge on him and his Rhyhorn over a year back.

"Get ready," he murmured to Weedle, the one thing he knew about Detect was that it wasn't an unbeatable defence, it had a limit to what it could predict and how long it could predict for, "Air Cutter, again!" he shouted to his flying pokemon.

Almost immediately, as soon as the Pidgeotto began to beat his wings harshly, the green glow returned to the Scyther's eyes and it began to counter each wind sickle with a wind blade, attack for attack. It was just waiting for Talon to make a move. It was definitely a strong pokemon, and apparently had endurance in spades. But, Scyther didn't really seem to read between the lines very well. It walked into his trap hook, line and sinker.

"Wrap around its legs with String Shot," he told the bug on his shoulder.

From his mouth, Lancer spat a thick sticky thread that shot through the air, the very moment the string circled around the mantis pokemons legs, Ash grabbed it himself and gave a sharp tug as hard as he could.

The Scyther squawked in confusion as its legs bukcled, and that was enough to break its focus. The glow faded from its eyes, and Scyther was almost instantly overwhelmed by the barrage of Air Cutter that bombarded its form.

Ash wasn't taking any chances though, "Poison Sting," he told Weedle sharply, before releasing Levia at his feed, "Quickly, use Bubble on Scyther!"

The bombardment of Air Cutter was soon joined by a rabbid barrage of glowing blue bubbles and sharp purple needles that rained down on the mantis pokemon and gave it no option to fight back, and no mercy either.

Ash let the barrage of attacks continue on for a good five seconds before calling a halt. He waited for the smoke from the attacks to clear, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the unmoving form of Scyther laying unconscious in a small crater shaped around its body.

While Ash quickly threw a pokeball at the downed Scyther, Talon landed in front of him beside Levia, and Lancer jumped down from his shoulder to join them. When the pokeball let out a ping signifying the completion of his capture, he favoured his three pokemon with a smile, "Good job guys," he told them, pride in his voice, "We didn't even need to bring out Pikachu." he congratulated them happily.

And he was happy, because he now had a new Scyther and with the reward money for completing the mission, he could afford to splurge on a couple of Tm's. Truly, it was a good day to be Ash Ketchum.

* * *

**Ash Ketchum's Pokemon**

Pikachu (No Nickname): Male – Static

Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Light Screen

Eevee (Fang): Male – Adaptability

Quick Attack, Shadow Ball, Bite, Sand Attack, Iron Tail

Magikarp (Levia): Male – Rattled

Splash, Tackle, Bounce, Bubble, Reversal

Pidgeotto (Talon): Male – Keen Eye

Air Cutter, Double Team, Quick Attack, Refresh, Wing Attack

Blitz (Treecko): Male – Overgrow

ThunderPunch, Rock Slide, Quick Attack, Energy Ball, DragonBreath, Iron Tail

Weedle (Lancer): Male – Shield Dust

Poison Sting, String Shot

Scyther (No Nickname): Male – Technician

Razor Wind, Detect, Aerial Ace, Skull Bash

* * *

**And here we are guys, finished!**

**Some more progress was made in this chapter. And Ash has officially went over the usual carry limit...already and he's only been in Viridian Forest for a few hours. Maybe it's a little overboard, but Ash sure isn't taking any chances at this point. And well, let's be honest, I'm staying true to what Ash was like in the beginning in regards to pokemon. He used to have a desire to catch most wild pokemon he came across - Spearow, Pidgey, Caterpie, Pidgeotto and Weedle are just a few of the ones he tried to catch in the first four episodes.**

**Just to sum it up, Ash is going to catch quite a few moment. Although, I don't plan to go crazy.**

**And don't worry, the story will begin to get more action packed when he reaches Brock. I've got rather interesting plans for that battle and after it. But, that's all I have to say for now guys. I'll see you later!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here we are again guys with chapter 5, wooh! Before we go into anything, I'd like to say there's a poll on my profile to help a bit with which direction I take this story, it isn't a major change either way, but I need to pick one of two options, and I can't decide. So vote yourselves, see if it can help me out.**

**I got a few messages asking me what Ash's outfit looked like, and what it was based on. Check out Haruhiro from Grimgar of Fantasy, I based Ash's clothes on his outfit. Although, the color scheme is different.**

**Anyway, I've not got much else to say here. So you guys can carry on and read the chapter now. Hope you enjoy it !**

* * *

With the clearing now free of an aggressive Scyther, Ash finally got the chance to look around fully. As the boy had noted before, the clearing was actually rather big, and almost entirely circular in shape. The grass was tame and soft, and there were no odd rocks or such – or anything even remotely hard or sharp littering the clearing at all.

It was too conveniently...clean.

The amber eyed trainer scanned around him once more, taking in the very close pond of drinking water for any pokemon living on land, and the near perfectly arranged foliage around the trees hiding the clearing from outside view and finally the large gather of soft leafage gathered at the base of a good few of the largest trees.

He came to the conclusion that this was more than likely the nesting area for a group of grass types. The leafage at the bottom of the trees were no doubt bedding, and bug types tended to prefer to nest within trees where they couldn't be reached quite as easily. It could have been many types really with just that information, but Ash concluded that it was grass types because of the foliage surrounding the trees and hiding the clearing from view. It was too well placed to be natural, so it was probably some form of grass type that formed the foliage, or a group of them.

And the removal of anything like rocks and the like littering the clearing told Ash that whatever group had been nesting here, had been caring for young. Well, atleast until his new Scyther arrived and chased them off by the looks of it and made this nesting area its own territory.

It was the perfect place to set up camp for a few days to focus on training his newer pokemon up to snuff and get them ready for Gym Battling. Still, he very much doubted any of his pokemon besides Pikachu would be strong enough to take on Brock – Gym Leaders were on a whole other level from the average trainer like that guy Nathan he battled earlier, and their pokemon far above the level of even the Scyther he just caught.

Levia was actually whom he decided on using first against Brock. Once he got Reversal down pat, he could use Levia's weakness against the Pewter City gym leader.

His plan of action decided, Ash set his backpack down on the forest floor before releasing Pikachu to join Lancer, Levia and Talon who were already out of their pokeballs, "We're setting up camp here for today guys, so you can relax out of your pokeballs," he told them. The pokemon happily cheered together, Talon quick to fly up and roost atop a tree branch and both Lancer and Pikachu eagerly bounded over to rest on the leaf bedding under the biggest tree in the clearing, no doubt where Scyther had been nesting.

The mantis pokemon probably would not be very happy when he released it to treat it later on. He noted Levia bouncing his way over to the pond and called out to the pokemon, "Hey buddy," he said, catching the water types attention, whom turned to him and blinked at him in curiosity, "If you see any pokemon in the water, try and get them to come up please – there might be some of them in there worth catching." he told the Magikarp, who raised one of his yellow whiskers and saluted in reply before continuing on his way to the point, diving down underneath the surface when he reached the water.

Left on his own for now, Ash grabbed a potion from his bag before making his way over to one of the other bed of leaves and releasing Fang and blitz on to it. Time to treat his team – Talon thankfully never took any damage in his battle against Scyther.

* * *

Nearly an hour later, Ash had fully set up camp. He'd taken the time to bring out his tent, lay out his sleeping bag within it and even managed to get a fire going. Which he'd used to cook a simple stew while he pulled out his pokemon's food bowls and filled them with food.

He found himself surrounded by his pokemon moments later, each gathered around him as he filled a bowl of his own with some stew and sat down amongst them. While they were all gathered like this and eating peacefully, he began to engage them in discussion about some of his plans and bouncing a few possible ideas off of his pokemon themselves to get their opinions.

"I think we need a land mount," Ash brought up just after telling Fang that after he got Iron Tail down he wanted to try and have the normal type learn the attack Yawn to help with a few of his plans for when he became an Umbreon.

Thankfully, neither Fang or Blitz had taken much real damage from their brief bout with Scyther, and were up and about not much longer, if a bit gingerly. Scyther it appeared, had rendered them both unconscious with powerful blows to the head – something that intrigued Ash. After battling it with Talon, he realized it wasn't much higher in level of strength than Fang and Blitz.

Precise blows to vital points with just enough power was enough to bring down an opponent of a similar level without much trouble – He'd thought on that kind of thing before, his father however much he loathed him had taught him quite a bit about combat of the human variety, which points to strike to bring down even the strongest of men, render their strength meaningless. He didn't think it was quite as simple when it came to pokemon – he'd always assumed it would be much harder than that.

He knew where that belief came from though after reviewing many of the pokemon he'd met in his mind. Since he had been a baby, he'd been surrounded by monstrously strong pokemon. They'd clouded his vision a bit, since it didn't really matter if even Pikachu got a hit in at their vital points – even his strongest pokemon lacked the strength to take advantage of such a weakness, so it didn't fully occur to him that it could be applied to weaker pokemon as well.

It took nearly three years of training, an evolution and his father doing _that _to Pikachu before they were even able to bring down one of his fathers weakest pokemon, his Rhyhorn – a pokemon that wasn't even on his main team. Rhyhorn was a pushover compared to the other monsters his father had, like his Nidoking or even worse, that massive Rhyperior of his – he'd seen that massive brute take a point blank Solarbeam from an unruly Claydol his father had caught a few months back, an attack that Rhyperior was extremely weak against being both a rock and ground type. Yet it hadn't even blinked, just lashed out with a massive fist and pinned the Claydol to the ground with ease.

His father had been setting an example that day. Showing him, that not all pokemon would go along with him happily. Some he'd have to discipline into obedience before he could even hope to begin earning their loyalty.

And then there were Professor Oak's pokemon, a frequent sight within Pallet. His Dragonite and Charizard were always patrolling the skies and his incredibly powerful Alakazam kept a constant barrier around Pallet Town that would ward off anything, pokemon or person with bad intentions.

A bit of a fond smile appeared on Ash's face when he thought of Oak's pokemon, specifically his Charizard. Since he was young, he'd seen that Charizard a lot – it had been incredibly affectionate to him, always gently playing with him, showing him cool attacks from time to time and every now and then he flew through the air on the old and powerful fire dragon.

It was because of that Charizard he had such a soft spot for the species and planned to pick one as his official starter.

Thankfully, before his thoughts could then drift on to his _own_ Charmander, Ignis and his fury could begin to boil at the thought of him being taken from him, Blitz interrupted him, the little grass type pausing in his eating, "Treecko, tree?" the grass type said, his bright yellow eyes peering at Ash in questing, one small green hand cupping his chin in thought at the notion of a land mount.

Shaking his previous thoughts aside, he continued on the idea he brought up, pointing to both Talon and Levia, "Think about it," he replied, "When Talon evolves into a Pidgeot, he'll be big enough for me to ride, which means we can fly from place to place and Levia will be a Gyarados some day – easily big enough for me to ride on in the water, we just need a land mount to of some kind to finish off the set." ash explained to his pokemon.

Well, truth be told it didn't need to really be a pokemon. He could just as easily get a bike, or when he got more money a motorbike or car – Gary was already driving around in a convertible after all, he'd made sure to pass his driving test in advance a few months back so that when he could legally own and drive a car upon being legitimized as an adult when he became a trainer, he could drive from place to place.

Maybe it was childish of him, but Ash didn't really want a vehicle of some kind. Because it would be so much cooler to ride on the back of a pokemon than drive or cycle. Plus, it would be cheaper and some pokemon like Arcanine could traverse almost any terrain – heck, he'd seen Professor Oak's old Arcanine swimming through a small lake in Pallet Town when it was chasing down an uppity Crawduant that had taken residence in it and began bullying the weaker pokemon within about.

It had sure gotten a fright when Arcanine just jumped right into the water after it and dragged it out kicking and screaming. Then it got stomped with a single Wild Charge attack and had been extra nice ever since.

Treecko studied him closely for a moment before closing his bright eyes and nodding in agreement to his reasoning, "Tree,"

"Vee, Eevee vee?" Fang piped in, idly swishing his tail through the air, back and forth, the weighted macho brace once again attached to his tail, he was getting much more used to the weight Ash noticed. Good progress, his tail was growing stronger, quickly.

"There's a few that could work," Ash said in return, having a rough idea what the pokemon was asking him, "The best three for it off the top of my head would be Arcanine, Houndoom and Luxray," he told them.

He held up three fingers, "The smallest and hardest to find here in Kanto would be Luxray, so we'll rule it out for now," he said, dropping one finger so that only two remained, "That leaves us with Arcanine and Houndoom – Arcanine are bigger and faster on average when they learn the Extreme Speed, but Houndour are more common around cities than Growlithe unless I can convince one of the police stations to part with a Growlithe or an egg of one."

He shrugged his shoulders with a smile, "We'll see how it goes when we get to Pewter City." Ash said, then pointed to Talon who perked up with the attention now on him, "If we can't get the police to part with a Growlithe, we can always get Talon here to fly above the city and search for a Houndour, there's always a few loners that live outside the wilderness packs running around the cities." he explained.

Or he could check in with a local breeder or two. Every City tended to have a couple of official Pokemon Breeder's that worked within their city limits. They tended to breed certain species of pokemon for sale – each breeder usually had different pokemon for sale, some kind of unspoken rule that other breeders didn't move in on another's turf so to speak and take profits for them.

He looked over his pokemon then, noting that they had all finished up their food for the most part, and then looked down at his own empty bowl in his lap. Setting it down, he stood up and brushed some stray dirt from his clothes before retrieving a pokeball from his belt, "First things first though guys," the raven haired trainer continued, "We have to deal with this guy in here – I need to treat him to fix up the damage we did to him when I caught him, but I might need you guys to back me up just in case he gets violent okay?"

When he got a resounding nod of heads and cries of agreement, even from Fang who looked far too eager at the thought of getting to attack Scyther again, Ash grabbed the potion from his bag again, but this time alongside an antidote to take care of any poisoning he might have incurred from Lancer's poison sting attack.

Then he released the mantis pokemon, and he almost died.

* * *

Ash made a near crucial mistake when he let out Scyther. Two actually.

For one, he was standing in front of his pokemon, impeding their view and frontal path slightly. For two, he released Scyther far too close to him, little more than a foot away.

Ash's amber eyes widened in a sudden panic when Scyther appeared from his pokeball in a burst of silvery white light – before the light had even faded from his form, his long and glowing white bladed arm was swung rapidly for Ash's throat.

With him in his pokemon's way, and with Scyther so close – there was no way they could get to his rescue in time. It was instinct alone that saved Ash's life.

Kicking his leg up on instinct, Ash kicked Scyther's armoured stomach as hard as he could, the force behind the blow shoving the mantis pokemon back just enough for Ash to lunge backwards at the same time – the bladed arm missing his throat by mere centimetres as the boy fell to his back on the grass below.

Before he even hit the ground, there was a shrill chorus of fury from his pokemon. Pikachu seemed to teleport he moved so fast – with Ash no longer blocking the way, the little rodent appeared mid air beside Scyther's head, faster than the bug could even react and wrapped his powerful jagged tail around the pokemon's throat and dragged him to the ground alongside Ash with enough force to shake the earth beneath them.

A split second later, a barrage of attacks flew through the space Scyther occupied just a mere split moment previous. A shadow Ball, followed by an Energy Ball smashed into the nearest tree with explosive force, the twin attacks having enough compressed power between them to utterly blow the top of the tree out of existence – and then were immediately followed by a shooting group of glowing blue bubbles, a batch of blue wind blades and a barrage of purple needles that shot through the area the top of the tree used to occupy and flying off high into the sky.

As he lay there looking up at the sky, hearing the furious noises his team were letting out towards the pinned Scyther, and the angry hisses the Scyther himself was letting out – Ash couldn't help but laugh, "Damn," his chest heaved to get that out through his laughter, "That was a close one."

He idly glanced at his pokemon, the ones not pinning Scyther down and was glad to see they weren't all attempting to jump the bug and beat him into paste. That was good, having to move them would impede him a bit. He had to present a certain image to that Scyther if he wanted to gain its loyalty.

Scyther as a species, and Scizor for that matter were for the most part, a warrior species – they respected strength, and had a hierarchy based on strength. They ranked themselves from strongest to weakest, and new members to their swarms started out at the bottom, from either joining from being an outsider or being born into the swarm. From there, the Scyther would then have to fight their way up the ranks, to the number two position before they could challenge the leader for the right to become number one – a test to show the true mightiest warrior in the swarm.

A duel it was called – and the loser was banished from the swarm. A leader couldn't have constant threats to their leadership, now could they?

The problem was, Ash mused as he made his way back to his feet, eyeing the mantis pokemon struggling, eyes wide in disbelief as Pikachu didn't budge no matter how much strength the bug type tried to escape his tail with – the problem was, this guy was different from the normal Scyther. He was a young hotshot, implied in the mission details to have not bothered with the usual Scyther custom and went straight for the leader.

Scyther was a rebel. Who'd rebelled against another Scyther having authority over him. He must have already known the consequences if he lost – Scyther were a rather smart race of pokemon, and this one was quite a bit smarter than he actually thought the average one was, it had to be with how practiced its use of Detect was, that wasn't an attack that could be used easily. He'd put some research into the attack, noting how like precognition it was, and it required the user to be able to follow the flows of battle to the point where they could predict how their opponent would attack and where they would attack just form the simplest twitch of their muscles.

It was an attack that for the most part, could only be wielded by very experienced pokemon that had saw many, many battles, having battled to the point that everything became second nature to them But Scyther was very young, an experienced Scyther wouldn't have had as much trouble with Talon, that left Ash with one possible answer.

Scyther was a fighting prodigy. A bit like Ash himself was, he'd been called a prodigy quite a few times by his father and even Professor Oak on occasion when it came to battling and fighting. He was a prodigy of combat, something his father Giovanni took great pride in.

The question was, how would he go about making himself work under another? What would make him agree to work under another's authority? He honestly could think of a way to be honest. The last time he'd let anyone have authority over him, Pikachu had been the one to pay for it, and he'd swore to never let something like that happen again.

Scyther bucked with all his strength with a furious snarling hiss, but for all his effort the mantis pokemon was subdued by Pikachu with a weak jolt of his Thundershock attack, small bolts of electricity arced over Scyther's form for a moment and the bug gave a cry of pain before his muscles relaxed and he apparently gave in for the moment.

Ash himself was a bit of an extreme case though in the sense of a young rebel. Why did anyone rebel? Because they couldn't get what they wanted under their leaders authority, even the righteous rebelling from a tyrant rooted back to that one thing.

Ash really wasn't a rebel then, his desires weren't so simple. He was something a bit more, but what?

He shook his head ridding himself of his thoughts, and the raven haired trainer took Scyther's relenting as his time to take control of the situation, "So," he began, making his way over and in quite an outrageous move, plopped himself right down and sat atop Scyther, "You're a bit of a rebel, aren't you little Scyther?" he hummed in curiosity, idly examining one of Scyther's bladed arms, marvelling silently at the long, incredibly sharp curved blades

It probably made it all the more demeaning that the Scyther was actually an inch or two taller than him.

Scyther glared at him, but the full on aggression seemed to have been bled out of him by Pikachu who sat by his head, glaring at the green insect. Now that he was up close and personal with Scyther he could see the purple colouring spreading beneath the fur on his face.

Ash sprayed it in the face with the antidote in his hand, surprisingly he'd still managed to keep a hold of it and the potion when Scyther attacked him.

The pokemon jerked back letting loose a shriek of alarm, then glared at him feebly through watery eyes, hissing at him angrily. Ash rolled his eyes, "Get over it you big baby," he told the pokemon, then promptly sprayed him in the face with the potion next. Ash smirked when Scyther opened his eyes, having caught a brief flash of green in them before they shut – he had actually used Detect to predict when he was going to use the potion, "You just tried to kill me, yet you don't hear me whining do you?"

"Which reminds me," he continued with a frown. Setting down the potion and antidote, he reached up to Scyther's face with one hand and sharply flicked the pokemon on the snout, causing the pokemon the flinch back at the stinging sensation it felt even through the slight armour on its face, "That's for nearly killing me, don't try that shit again or next time I'll have Pikachu here pulverize you, got it?" his voice was harsh as he delivered his threat, and Pikachu's red cheeks sparking angrily made the situation all the more intimidating.

He had to give Scyther some props. His only reaction was a slight widening of his eyes. He didn't attempt the threatening noises this time though, smart enough to know when he was beaten and so the mantis pokemon stared into Ash's eyes in resignation.

The tense atmosphere hung in the air for a moment before Ash leaned back atop Scyther with a groan, planting his hands atop the pokemon's armoured thighs, "But man," he started, "That was really dangerous, I should get a knife or something to defend myself in case something like that happens again." It was stupid of him in the first place to be standing so close, but if a situation like that ever came up again, a knife of some sort would be a great help, with one he could have atleast blocked Scyther went he tried to decapitate him.

And wasn't that a lovely image?

Well it didn't matter at the moment. Ash looked over his shoulder at his other pokemon, "You guys can go relax and enjoy yourselves," he told them, "Me and Pikachu can handle things from here, so no worries alright?"

Fang snorted, tossing a scathing glare at the downed Scyther before trotting away towards the bed of leafage he'd claimed as his own. Blitz followed his lead after giving a long measuring and if Ash read him correctly, respectful look and then leaped up into the trees to find a tree branch to relax on. The other free lingered a bit, throwing some hisses, shrieks and such in Scyther's direction before they eventually cleared off, Talon and Lancer laying together on one of the leaf beds and Levia making his way back into the water to more than likely spend some time with the other water types he'd found in the small pond earlier. A small group consisting of a couple Barboach, a few Shellos and one odd Wooper.

Despite their interesting typing, Ash hadn't really felt any desire to catch any of them.

With them gone, he turned his attention back to Scyther, "So let's get to the root of the matter shall we?" Ash hummed, amber eyes locking with blue, "I caught you, now how do we move on from here?"

When Scyther remained silent, Ash continued seamlessly, "Don't think of this as a master and servant relationship, we're a team, meaning me and you, we're partners," he saw a faint interest in those eyes which he only caught from the slight twitch the mantis pokemon's brows made at the mention of partners, "And now that you're with me I'll make sure your goals are achieved, whether they be helping you get stronger, getting territory of your own or even..helping you evolve." the raven haired trainer spoke.

With each word said, the light of excitement that began to build in Scyther's eyes, the moment he mentioned evolution however, the bug pokemon began to struggle for all he was worth beneath both Ash's weight and Pikachu's tail, blue eyes near shining with desire.

Ash smiled, "So you wanna become a Scizor, eh?" he mused aloud. That made a disturbing amount of sense now that he thought of it. Metal Coat's the items used to evolve Scyther into Scizor, were rather rare and hard to find. He wasn't actually sure how they were formed – but he knew it was highly unlikely for any Scyther to just find one, especially just living life in a swarm. But Scyther was young, so he couldn't have struck out alone – Scyther were a warrior species, but they did look out for their young.

It was all adding up. Just why this youngster challenged the leader of his swarm outright, why he didn't bother climbing the ranks. He wanted out of the swarm so he could search for a Metal Coat without being interrupted and just why he'd been spotted all over the forest, he was searching for a Metal Coat.

He was the perfect example of a rebel.

Ash's smile widened into a grin and he leaned forward until his nose was touching against Scyther's and stared the bug right in the eye, "Well then, if you come with me, I promise I'll be able to get my hands on a Metal Coat at some point," he told the mantis pokemon before standing up, he glanced down at the pokemon, a confident look shining in his amber eyes, "What do you say? Wanna be my pokemon?"

Needless to say, Scyther joined the team. Eagerly.

* * *

Ash and his team of seven continued to stay within the Viridian Forest for another four days before proceeding to Pewter City. Scyther, had agreed to take a nickname, and they'd eventually decided on Mith, short for Mithril, the legendary soft metal used to create most form fitting armour in legend, boasting a hardness far beyond steel, yet without such a rigid weight that slowed down the wearer. It was theorized that mithril was actually made from the shed armour of Scizor, the evolved form of Scyther which was covered in a powerful red armour that boasted amazing durability, yet was still light enough to allow Scizor to move at high speeds.

He upped the training of his team the next morning while they stayed in that clearing. He had his pokemon sparring for hours, followed by physical training and then attack training. By the second day, he actually awoke to find his Weedle missing, and in his place, a Kakuna. The stress from the physically draining training had actually forced the Weedle to evolve. Ash had known Weedle grew and evolved fast, but he had no idea it was that fast – it had taken months before Pikachu had evolved from Pichu, actually nearer a year.

At some point during the second day, Levia had gotten a good enough grasp on Bubble for Ash to move him entirely on to learning Reversal. Fang and Blitz followed close behind, gaining a control and strength with Iron Tail that allowed them to pulverize stone, they had a good grasp of it for a few days training, and mastery would come with experience – so he moved them on to different training. For Fang, he'd started the normal type on learning Yawn, and with Blitz he'd instructed the Treecko to work on forming his Energy Ball's faster, and try with one hand.

He still made them keep wearing the macho brace though. The stronger their tails grew, the stronger their Iron Tail attacks would be.

Talon got Wing Attack down earlier on the first day of their training, and since then Ash had the flying type attempting to learn Twister. The bird had made remarkable progress in the four days of training.

With Mith, he had him follow Talon's lead and begin with a simple move. Learning how to infuse normal type energy into his bladed arms to create a Slash attack, and after the bug got it down within the two days, he started the bug pokemon on learning Silver Wind, although progress was slow.

Volt tackle was coming along even slower though. While Pikachu had managed to manifest an electrical aura to cover his form and enhance the impact of his tackle, he wasn't able to supercharge his muscles with aura of electricity yet, which was what made Volt Tackle such a devastating attack. It was like Wild Charge, combined with Quick Attack and then enhanced with a status move that boosted the pokemon's innate strength and speed. Pikachu's version so far, was little more than Wild Charge.

Well, atleast he got Wild Charge down for now.

Lancer saw the least action out of everyone after evolving. With his new body as a Kakuna, he lost much of his mobility, so he'd been limited to practising his attacks. Ash had them work on his newly learned Harden attack constantly after evolving – Beedrill as a species were rather frail naturally, but many overlooked the fact that they learned Harden as Kakuna, and Ash could use it later when Lancer became A Beedrill to help him endure more attacks and lessen damage taken.

* * *

The first thing Ash did when he arrived in Pewter City those four days later, was make his way towards the nearest Pokemon Mart. He didn't really pay much attention to the frontier city, he had some things to take care of before he took in the marvellous city bordered all around by large rock formations and said to have been built in the remnants of a mountain that had been destroyed hundreds of years back during a clash between the three legendary birds of Kanto – Articuno, Moltres and Zapdos.

When he reached the mart, Ash quickly made his way over to the travelling gear selection and clothing area. He quickly picked out a large army like knife with a rounded handle and a serrated, black steel blade. To go along with it, he bought a leather sheath that tied around his abdomen and hung at the small of his back, and a piece of leather chest armour to go along with it. He eyed how it looked in the mirror, grinning slightly at how it looked, before frowning noticing something missing.

He looked around him, and noted a selection of Silk Scarf's going for a decent price, so grabbed one of them and threw it around his neck, his grin returning when he felt the scarf completed the look. On his way to the front counter, he grabbed a black pouch that could be attached to his belt – if he kept catching pokemon at the rate he was, he'd soon run out of space on his belt, and if he didn't he could always keep some supplies like berries or the like at the ready if his pokemon needed it.

"That'll be 1,275 please," the cashier told him. Thanking him when the trainer used his pokedex to pay the Pokedollars

"Do yo sell Tm's here?" Ash questioned after paying for his new gear.

The cashier nodded, "Yes we do," he replied, then pointed off to the right of Ash where a large glass cabinet sat against the wall, "That cabinet shows off our selection." he told him.

Ash thanked the man before making his way over and examining the Tm's through the glass. There weren't many, and all rather common ones. Bide, Protect, Double Team, Take Down and Rest. All going for 2,000 Pokedollars a piece, or 5,000 for a permanent copy.

Ash ended up buying a permanent copy of Protect, and then splurged a little bit more to buy a wide selection of pokefeed geared towards the majority of types, specifically the ones his pokemon fit into.

* * *

After he was done with the Pokemon Mart, Ash then made his way to the Pokemon Centre. He made his way to the front desk and piled his seven pokeballs into two of the trays atop the desk – he noted the Nurse Joy raising a pink eyebrow when she noticed the seventh pokeball, "Seven pokeballs already?" she gasped, her eyes roving over his young appearance, "That's quite the achievement for one so young."

While it was true the rule was mostly put in place because of scrub trainers, that didn't mean it didn't affect others. Usually a trainer would have to put in an appeal to have their limit lifted and that was usually only after they proved they could handle the responsibility.

Ash may have had a large distaste for his father, but the raven haired Pallet native couldn't deny that being the son of a Gym Leader came with a few perks.

Instead of telling the nurse how he had his carry limit extended already, he instead handed over his pokedex to the nurse who excepted it with a second raised eyebrow joining the first, "I was wondering if you could finalize a mission I took sanctioned by the league?" he asked her, a small smile on his lips, "I caught that Scyther in the Viridian Forest, so it won't be bothering anyone anymore."

The nurse gasped, "You actually caught it?" she asked. When Ash nodded she smiled brightly, "Thank goodness, you have no idea how many trainers have stumbled in here the last month with scores of injured pokemon because of that Scyther."

She inserted the pokedex into her computer and after typing away at it for a minute or so, a loud beep rang out and the pokedex was ejected. She handed it back to him, "There you are Mr. Ketchum," she told him, "The total reward of 17,500 Pokedollars has been added to your account, is there anything else I can help you with?" she questioned, picking up the trays with his pokeballs in them and standing up.

Ash nodded, "I was wondering if there are any local Breeders in the city?" he asked the pink haired nurse.

"Yes, there is one," she told him, "He goes by the name Benny, would you like the address to his home?" When he answered in the positive she gave him the address which he found on his Pokegear without too much trouble, and then after thanking her the pink haired nurse made her way deeper into the centre with his pokemon to begin treating them.

"While they're getting healed, I guess I'll go check out this Benny guy, see if he has anything I want." Or could afford for that matter, he only had a little over 20,000 pokedollars right now after all. Hardly enough for any rare pokemon, but he didn't really expect rare ones at alocal Breeder's in Pewter City anyway.

* * *

**Ash Ketchum's Pokemon**

Pikachu (No Nickname): Male – Static

Thundershock, Thunderbolt, Thunder, Quick Attack, Iron Tail, Electro Ball, Light Screen, Wild Charge

Eevee (Fang): Male – Adaptability

Quick Attack, Shadow Ball, Bite, Sand Attack, Iron Tail, Yawn

Magikarp (Levia): Male – Rattled

Splash, Tackle, Bounce, Bubble, Reversal

Pidgeotto (Talon): Male – Keen Eye

Air Cutter, Double Team, Quick Attack, Refresh, Wing Attack, Twister

Treecko (Blitz): Male – Overgrow

ThunderPunch, Rock Slide, Quick Attack, Energy Ball, DragonBreath, Iron Tail

Kakuna (Lancer): Male – Shield Dust

Poison Sting, String Shot, Harden

Scyther (Mith): Male – Technician

Razor Wind, Detect, Aerial Ace, Skull Bash, Slash, Silver Wind

* * *

**And done.**

**Damn I'm so tired. I wanted to get this done by today without pause. My free time is coming to an end tomorrow, so I wanted to get one last chapter out. To that end I stayed up through the night to finish this and it's now noon. I ended up rushing the end because I felt so tired, but what can you do eh? And on that note, I'm gonna go crash you guys. I'll see you...when I see you,**

**Oh...Yawn...remember and check out that poll boys and girls...zzzz...**


End file.
